Nobody Cares Like a Bear
by Alexander-Crossover
Summary: The second story in the teen care bear series. Now you know ho they are, time to see what they do to help people around the world in their Caring Missions.
1. Seperation Anxiety

**Nobody Cares Like a Bear**

Separation Anxiety

Valiant tried to ignore the pain he was feeling, it was the same pain he'd gone to see Take Care about a few months ago, but he had found nothing wrong, said it was likely growing pains. He stopped in the Forest of Feelings, feeling the pain in his head. He fell to his knees as it intensified. He groaned in agony as the pain built up, all around him there seemed to be a build up of energy, the trees near him began to get pushed back by the energy as it was released.

Nearby, the release was felt by Loyal Heart Dog and Snowy Heart Fox, who rushed over and saw what was happening with Valiant. As they attempted to get closer they could feel the energy pushing on them. Each of them managed to grab a hold of one of Valiant's arms.

"Valiant, can you hear me, what's happening?!" Loyal shouted to Valiant. Valiant didn't respond but a moment later, whatever was happening, stopped. Both Loyal Heart and Snowy helped him up. The area surrounding them had taken some rather serious damage, the leaves had fallen off the trees immediately adjacent to where Valiant had been, and the ground had begun to erode slightly.

"Ok, that was no growing pain, I need to see Take Care," he said.

"Would you like any help?" Snowy Heart asked.

Valiant shook his head, "I'll be fine," he said, before marching off. Both Loyal and Snowy exchanged looks, they knew something was wrong.

"Well even I can admit when I was wrong, but I still can't find anything medically wrong with you," Take Care said, examining the test sheets he had from Valiant.

"Take Care, what happened to me there was real. Heck I almost tore a hole in the ground of the Forest of Feelings!" Valiant was clearly angry, but also worried.

"When did those spasms first start?" Take Care asked.

"Well, they started when I was younger, a few years ago, I don't know how long. I snuck along with Noble Heart on a mission to help some little orange haired kid who's mom had just died. I spent some time playing with him, or trying too, he was too depressed to do much, and by the end he seemed so serious. The spasms started shortly after that, and now this," Valiant sighed.

"Well I don't know what I can do," Take Care said sadly, "I can't find any real medical reason for these events, maybe someone else in the family can help."

"Well thanks anyway," Valiant got up and left. He ended up wandering for a while, not really sure what to do.

"Hey Valiant, what did Take Care say?" Valiant turned to see Snowy Heart jogging towards him.

"He can't find anything wrong so he can't help me. I can't stand around waiting for another incident like that, hey where's Loyal Heart?" he asked, realizing the other person who had come to his aid wasn't there.

"He got assigned to a caring mission," Snowy said. The white fox thought for a moment before suggesting, "I don't know if it will help, but I can show you how to do a vision quest."

"A what?" Valiant asked sounding confused.

"A vision quest, I told all of your I had training as a shaman, I can help you see a message from your guiding spirit, if you're willing," Snowy explained, hopefully.

"I don't know if I trust that stuff, but at this point, I'm willing to try anything. Lead the way," Valiant said, sounding a bit defeated. Snowy nodded and led him back to his house.

***

Everyone in the family stood stunned as Valiant Heart Wolverine made his announcement.

"I'm sad to say, that I have to leave."

"Leave? But why, what's wrong?" Noble Heart asked, clearly concerned.

"A short time ago, I had another one of the spasms I usually complain about, but this time it actually did some damage, and if it happens again it could get worse," Valiant sighed sadly, "Snowy helped with something he called a 'vision quest' and while I'm not sure if what I saw was real or not, but it's all I have to go on. I'm leaving tomorrow."

The entire family left the Hall of Heart feeling sad. Most of them said their good byes to Valiant on the way out and wished him luck as he headed home. One of the few who didn't was Love-a-Lot. Wish Bear noticed and walked over to her.

"Is something wrong, Love-a-Lot?"

"Of course, the same thing that's wrong with everyone else, we're losing a member of the family, maybe forever," she sighed sadly.

"You know, for a bear of love you can't seem to tell when you're feeling it," Wish Bear said, teasingly. Before Love-a-Lot could reply the caring alarm connected sounded. Not wanting to continue the conversation, Love-a-Lot left to grab the mission. She grabbed the mission sheet that printed out from the meter and checked the location before creating a cloud car and taking off for Earth.

The mission subject was sitting in a park in a small town on a bench. Love-a-Lot hoped this would help get her mind off the unpleasant revelation she'd just experienced. The subject in question was a teenage girl. Love-a-Lot approached her and cleared her throat to get her attention.

The girl looked up and gave a sideways squint to Love-a-Lot, "You a Care Bear? What do you want?" she asked, clearly not appreciating the bear's presence.

"I'm here to help you, we can tell you're feeling sad."

"Well I don't know why you're bothering, you can't help me," The girl looked away.

Sighing, Love-a-Lot went to sit next to her, "Try me. Tell me what the problem is."

"It's a friend of mine. I've known her since the first grade. Her dad was offered a good job in England, so they're leaving in a few days, probably for years and I don't know if I'll ever get to see her again."

Love-a-Lot blinked and then hung her head, "I know how you feel," she said.

"How would you!" the girl snapped back.

"Because, I have a close friend who's leaving our home too," the pink bear sighed, "I'm going to miss him a lot."

"Really?" the girl's apparent anger and irritation had faded to sympathy.

"Yes, and you know, I guess I figured out what I need to do about it. I need to spend what time I have left with him, with him and hope that some day we'll see each other again," Love-a-Lot stood up, "I'm sorry but I have to go, someone else will be along to help you soon." She conjured a cloud car with her symbol.

"Thanks, but I don't think I need help, I hope you can tell him what you need to." Love-a-Lot paid no mind as she got into her car and drove back to Care-a-Lot.

***

Valiant Heart was just finished packing, not that there was much he could take, just his clothing really and some minor keepsakes. He closed the trunk of the Cloud Car he was using, deciding to leave early so as to as to avoid a long tearful good bye.

"Valiant!" he turned at the voice calling his name and was surprised to see Love-a-Lot running towards him.

"Love-a-Lot, what's going on here?" he asked surprised.

"I could ask the same of you," she said, panting a bit, "why are you leaving now, I thought you were waiting 'till tomorrow."

"I don't want long tearful goodbyes, but I guess I can't avoid this one," he sighed, "What do you want?" he asked.

"What I want? Well to say goodbye and," she paused, hen without warning grabbed Valiant's shirt, pulled him in, and kissed him. Valiant was too stunned to react until she released him and he blinked then smirked.

"Whoa, Love-a-Lot. Is that how you say goodbye to everyone?" he asked.

"No," she said, "I just wanted to say, I hope you'll come back before too long."

"Relax," Valiant Heart moved closer and put his arms around her, she was quite a bit shorter than he was, "I'll be back, I don't know when but I will, I promise," he kissed her softly then let her go. Before he drove off he looked back and said, "just promise me you won't get all mopey when I'm gone. Can't have the bear of love acting like Grumpy now can we," then he drove off.

"Hey! I won't be acting like Grumpy Bear!" she shouted after him in mock anger, then she laughed a little, then began to cry. After a while she managed to stop the flow of tears mostly and looked inside Valiant's house. It looked so empty, so lonely, "Don't worry, I'll keep being the way I always am, I just hope you come back someday."

Up in the air, Valiant checked a map he had taken and spoke out a bit, "I hope she's that enthusiastic when I come back. Now I need to find that man from my vision, that strange green bucket hat of wore should be obvious."


	2. Baby Drama

[u]Baby Drama[/u]

Loyal Heart landed back in the Forest of Feelings, he had gone to Earth on a mission a short time ago but on the way back, stopped to buy something he had wanted to for a long time. Now he had it and he was happy to be bringing it home, as a surprise for his lady Proud Heart.

Upon landing, Loyal Heart headed straight for Proud Heart's home, smiling broadly, and thankfully not encountering any unexpected surprises along the way. He reached her house to find her sitting on her front deck wearing her yellow sundress, which was actually a couple sizes too big for her, and looking quite sad, sitting with her arms in her lap and an expression on her face that made the blue dog feel her sorrow. Loyal Heart did his best to smile and walked up on the deck.

"Milady, are you well?" he asked.

Proud Heart looked up, managing a weak smile, "Hi, Loyal Heart, I'm as well as I can be."

"Perhaps I can cheer you up then, Proud Heart," he moved in front of her and procured a small box from his pocket, "I know this won't be for some time, but despite how old we are, I felt I should ask you this now," he got down on one knee in front of her and held the box up, opening it to reveal a silver ring with a topaz gem set in it, "Proud Heart, milady, will you marry me."

Proud Heart suddenly started crying openly. Taken aback by this reaction, Loyal Heart stood up and asked, with concern in his voice, "Proud Heart, what's wrong?"

"Oh Loyal Heart!" she stood up crying and hugged him, crying into his chest, "I think I'm pregnant!" Loyal Heart stood stunned for a moment then hugged her back, not sure what to say.

******

Jolly was bouncing excitedly in the cloud mobile beside Cozy Heart. This was going to be the first official mission he was going on. While he should be nervous he may do or say the wrong thing, he was treating this new stage of his life as he did everything, jollily.

Friend and Secret were searching the ground for a spot to land from the front seat. Seeing a vacant lot at the end of the street their charge lived on, they put the cloud mobile down.

"So the teens name is Vicky and she has been very upset the past week and is taking it out on her mom and dad."

"No worries love, OI can make 'er smoile again."

"I don't doubt that Jolly. But first we have to figure out why she's upset so we can help her fix the problem."

Secret pulled on Friend Bears arm, fervently whispering in her ear. "I know Secret," To the others she repeated what he said, "Secret reminded us that we shouldn't be too pushy with her. Teenagers shut up the more you push."

"Sssecret we know, we are teenagerssss." Cozy told him with a smile. As they walked down the street to Vicky's house, they cracked jokes at each other and had a laughing fit when Secret stepped in a wad of gum.

Arriving at the house they saw Vicky sitting on her porch, eyes red and puffy and wringing a piece of paper in her hands.

"Oy love, what's with the water works?"

Looking up Vicky yelped as she saw two orange bears, a purple penguin, and a violet platypus standing on her walkway.

"Who are you?"

"We're the Care Bears. I'm Friend Bear and this is Secret Bear, Cozy Heart Penguin, and Jolly Heart Platypus. We saw you were upset so we thought we'd come and cheer you up."

Vicky frowned, "Have you been spying on me?"

"No sheila. A lil' birdy tol' us you were 'avin a rough go of it an we wan't ta help."

Jolly grinned widely at her before offering her a tissue from his khaki shorts pocket. Accepting it and blowing her nose, her eyes once more focused on the pavement.

"I don't think you guys can really help with this one. I screwed up majorly."

Friend patted her knee comfortingly, "Well why don't you tell us and we'll see. If you're worried we might tell someone else, don't. No one keeps a secret like Secret Bear."

Wringing her hands nervously on around the paper in her hand she took a shaky breath. "I…I think I might be pregnant."

There was a moment of silence before Secrets eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.

******

"Proud Heart are you certain?" Loyal Heart asked.

Proud Heart had calmed down a bit and had stopped crying vocally, but tears were still forming as she spoke, "Not completely, but I've had most of the symptoms, and they started after that one night…" she trailed off. Loyal Heart nodded and rubbed her back comfortingly, he knew what she referring to.

"Proud Heart, if you are not sure perhaps you should go to Take Care and ask him for some tests," Loyal Heart suggested.

"I have, considered it," Proud Heart admitted, "but, I was too ashamed to tell anyone before now."

"If you are willing to go, I will be there to support you," Loyal Heart told her reassuringly.

"Thank you, Loyal Heart," she kissed him, "I think I can do this," she stood up and Loyal Heart stood up with her as they headed to Take Care's office.

At Take Care's office Loyal Heart was sitting in the waiting room as Proud Heart was getting her tests from the doctor bear. He was thinking about things, mostly about how the two of them had allowed themselves to get to this situation, they were still young. He'd heard that people on earth sometimes went through this, but he was prepared to do the right thing.

In the office, Proud Heart sat on an examination table as Take Care finished the tests.

"There, now we just need to wait a moment," Take Care turned to Proud Heart, "You do know that if the test comes back positive, you will have to tell everyone about this, especially Noble Heart and True Heart."

"I know," Proud Heart said. She felt both remorseful and somewhere inside her, maybe happy, but she had to wait to find out the facts first.

******

They had carried Secret inside to the couch and waited for him to recover. In the mean time, Vicky told them how she and her boyfriend had been dating since they were 14 and that they felt they were ready to take the next step. They had only done "it" the one time about a month ago, and they had used protection.

However Vicky was late and she was freaking out that it was because she was pregnant. Cozy Heart asked her if she had taken a pregnancy test yet.

"Not yet. I have one but I'm too scared to take it. If it's positive I don't know what I'll do."

"Have you told your boyfriend yet? Maybe we should get him over for support."

Vicky shook her head so hard they were afraid it as going to fall off her neck. "No! I can't tell him yet. He'll break up with me I know he will." She glanced at the letter in her hand. It was a note from her beau from their one year anniversary. She had re-read it over and over trying to draw some form of courage from it.

"Easy on love, let's not jump the gun. If he loves ye he isn't gonna jus jump ship cause ye may 'ave a kipper on the way."

"Jolly's right. First things first, come upstairs with Cozy and me and take the test. Then we will figure out where to go from there."

"Jolly can you keep an eye on Ssssecret until he wakes up?"

"No worries love." He watched the girls go upstairs with Vicky before grabbing a magazine. Looking to Secret he couldn't help but shake his head.

******

Proud Heart finally emerged from the office and Loyal Heart stood up to greet her.

"Milady, are you all right, what did the tests show?" he asked, concerned. Proud Heart didn't speak and merely handed the test result print out to the dog for him to read. Loyal Heart read the results and it confirmed their worries, Proud Heart was indeed pregnant. Proud Heart began to cry again and hugged Loyal Heart tightly.

"Oh Loyal Heart, what are we going to do?"

Loyal Heart hugged her back and said, "I asked you earlier before you told me what was wrong, and now I'm asking you again," he pulled out the ring box and held it up in front of Proud Heart, "Will you marry me Milady?"

Proud Heart took the ring, and for the first time that day, smiled as she slipped it on her ring finger, "Oh Loyal Heart, of course I will," she kissed him deeply.

Take Care appeared at the entrance to the waiting room and spoke up, "You two will still have to inform the founders of your decision and this situation."

******

After Vicky emerged from the bathroom she paced her room, waiting for the timer to go off.

"Vicky either way, everything will be okay. You just need to talk with your parents and-"

"Are you crazy!" she exploded at Friend cutting her off. "My parents will kill me! I'm not supposed to be having sex at my age, I just gave in because all my friends were and my boy friend really wanted to."

"Did he force you too?" Cozy inquired.

"No he would never. He really is a great guy. I just didn't want to say no, but I wasn't totally ready yet either."

"You should have told him. Honesty is always the best policy. And he would have understood and waited. If not then he wasn't the right guy for you."

She sat on her bed drawing her knees up to her chest. They sat in silence for the next couple of minutes until the ominous ding was heard from the bathroom. Vicky, Cozy Heart, and Friend all shot for the door, got stuck in it and had to wiggle their way through, causing them to collapse in a heap.

Hand scrabbling on the counter, Vicky retrieved the test and brought it down to the floor.

"Well, what doesss it sssay?" Cozy asked the wide eyed Vicky.

******

Noble Heart sighed once he'd heard the story from Loyal Heart and Proud Heart. Holding his head in his hands he said, "Were you two even thinking about the consequences of your actions when you did that?"

"Not really," Proud Heart admitted. Loyal Heart nodded in agreement with her.

"Well what can I say that will change anything, you two have to live with the consequences of your actions," Noble Heart sat down.

"What do you two plan to do?" True Heart asked.

"I've asked Proud Heart to marry me," Loyal Heart asked. Noble Heart and True Heart both exchanged looks and before they could say anything, Proud Heart spoke up to defend the decision.

"He asked me to marry him before I told him I was pregnant, and I want to because he makes me happy."

"Very well," Noble Heart said, "I'll leave you two to do what you can." Loyal Heart and Proud Heart nodded and left, hand in hand.

"It looks like we gave Loyal Heart the right name," True Heart commented.

"Yes, that is true," Noble Heart said, "But they've still made a serious mistake when it come to this situation. At least they will have our support and the support of the Care Bear Family in this matter."

"I'm sure they will," True Heart said, giving Noble Heart a kiss on the cheek.

******

Her mouth widened into a grin as her shoulders sagged in relief, "It's negative. I'm not pregnant."

Friend and Cozy sighed along with her. "That'ssss great newsss."

Vicky nodded and hugged them, "Thank you so much for helping me through this. I have to go call my boyfriend. We have a few things to talk about."

"Remember be totally honest with him. If he doesn't like what you have to say then he isn't right for you."

"I will. And thanks again. I hope Secret Bear will be okay."

Friend waved her off, "You know how men are. He'll be just fine."

Cozy and Friend returned to the guys. Secret was awake and jumped to his feet when he saw them. Friend smiled at him, "False alarm, all is well."

"Croikey that was a close one eh?"

They agreed with Jolly and headed back to their cloud mobile in the vacant lot. Little did they know what was waiting for them at home.

******

Word spread fast about Loyal Heart and Proud Heart, there were some lectures, some cautions, some congratulations, and some comforting from various members of the family. Loyal Heart began to make plans to move in with Proud Heart, as well as plans for the wedding. They were scared of course, but they were together, and with that and help from the Care Bear Family, they would be able to pull through.


	3. Tough Love

Tough Love

Champ, Tender Heart, and Good Luck were headed down to the Forest of Feelings to go for a jog. Running in Care-a-Lot got dull after awhile because the scenery was all the same; white cloud after white cloud after white cloud with the occasional rainbow thrown in.

"What do you think? Take the trail that doubles back by Rainbow Falls or the one that goes along the top of the cliffs that boarder the river?" Good Luck inquired.

"Let's do the cliff trail. It's been awhile since we've run that sports fan."

Nodding Good Luck parked the cloud mobile at the trail head where the river just started to erode the shore. Stretching briefly, the three bears set off down the trail at an easy pace.

When they stopped to take their first break, they moved off the trail and lay on the grass to do crunches and push ups. Out of nowhere a blue streak blew past them, trailing with it a cloud of dust that went up their noses and in their throats.

As they coughed to rid themselves of the dust, the blue blur back tracked and came to a halt in front of them. "Hey boys. Going for a run?"

"We *cough cough* were Swift Heart." Good Luck managed to get out.

Champ got to his feet, "Hey, you took some of your piercings out." It was true. All Swift Heart had in was here eyebrow bar, 3 piercings in her left ear, 2 in her right, and her belly button charm which was exposed by her jogging shirt.

She grinned, panting slightly from her run. "Yeah I realized you all had been right and I had gone way over board. Plus I was getting sick of all the teasing, so I decided to keep a few but I'm going to let the rest close up."

"Good for you Swifty. Do you want to join us on our jog?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes at Tender Heart. "No thanks, you'll just slow me down. I've got 10 more miles to go. Later slow pokes." With a salute she took off once more down the trail, laughing as she went.

Champ clenched his fists, "Ooooo that Swift Heart thinks she's so great because she's faster then anyone else. 10 more miles. Please. I could run just as much as she could."

Good Luck rolled his eyes, "I doubt that Champ. Brave Heart told me she runs 20 miles every day."

Muttering to himself he set off on the trail again without waiting for his friends.

The next time they saw Swift Heart was at dinner and once more she looked different, a little more tense then she had that morning. As she entered the dining area her eyes scanned the room frantically. When she didn't seem to have found who she was looking for she began to question the nearest members of the Care Bear Family. All of them shook their heads in response.

When she finally she got to Champ, Good Luck and Tender Heart, they could tell she was straining to keep her voice calm. "Hey, you haven't seen Fauna today have you?"

Tender Heart shook his head. "Sorry Swift Heart, I haven't seen her since dinner last night. Is everything okay?"

She gnawed at her thumbnail. "I don't know. She told me she was going down to Earth to get a new shirt and would be back in a few hours but that was right after I left you guys on the trail."

"She's disappeared before Swifty without telling use where she was really going. I'm sure everything's fine."

"No Good Luck, she always told me. This isn't like her."

She sat in one of the chairs near them instead of getting food. Cozy came and sat next to her with Jolly close behind "Here Ssswift eat thissss and try to relax."

Dinner was quiet and tense for the rabbit Cousin. As the meal wore on and Fauna still didn't show, the others began to pick up on Swift Hearts nervous energy.

Finishing his meal Bedtime got up to leave and get ready for his night shift. Yawning he opened the door and stepped outside. "*Yawn* Hey Fauna, we were wondering wha- By the Great Wishing Star what happened to you!"

Swift Heart was up in a second and dashing towards the suddenly alarmed Bedtime. True Heart and Noble Heart weren't far behind.

Fauna stood in her human form with her eyes cast down and her hair hiding her face. "I'm fine. Sorry I missed dinner."

They took in her appearance, seeing her torn clothes and scratched up hands and arms.

Noble Heart stepped forward and placed his paw under her chin, tilting her head up. He felt her go rigid as he touched her and could understand why as soon as he saw her face. Her eye with the scar was so swollen it was almost closed and there was a nice bruise surfacing on the outside of it. Her lip was split and bleeding sluggishly and there were small cuts on her cheeks.

"Fauna what on earth happened to you?"

She turned her eyes away so they couldn't meet Noble Hearts. "Nothing. I got in a fight with some stupid gang."

"A gang? What were you doing fighting with a gang?" True Heart practically yelled at her. Swift Heart had zipped inside for an ice pack and now pressed it onto Fauna's eye.

She set her lips in a straight line, snatching the ice pack away and holding it on her own. "Doesn't matter."

"You either tell the four of us or everyone when we call them outside and you'll have to deal with all their questions too."

Fauna winced, "Fine. I was leaving the mall when I walked past this group of teenagers who started to heckle me. They boxed me in and one of them tried to take my money so I punched him. Then his buddies tried to grab me and I had to fight them off. When I finally got a chance to I ran away as fast as I could."

"Why didn't you just shift and fight back?" Noble Heart asked her.

"And let those Neanderthals know what I really am! They would have told the Hunters about me before I got halfway home!" She hissed at him, her one eye going steely.

"What took you so long to get back here?"

She looked away again, "I blacked out as soon as I felt I was safe. And then I couldn't shift once I woke up because I was in too much pain. So I had to create a cloud mobile. Needless to say I'm not very good at it."

"I'm taking you home to rest." Swift Heart rested her hands gently on Fauna's shoulders. Allowing Swift Heart to lead her away, the others saw her limping slightly.

Bedtime turned to True Heart and Noble Heart. "I'll see if I can track down that gang that hurt Fauna. Then tomorrow we can send someone down to speak with them."

"We'll keep this quiet till then. We don't need the others panicking." True Heart told him.

The next morning neither Fauna nor Swift Heart were at breakfast. Noble Heart made excuses for them saying he was having them work on something in the Forest of Feelings. Afterwards the Cousins stayed in Care-A-Lot to do stare training.

Before they could get started however they were interrupted by a very angry looking herd of Pegasis. A blue roan was in the lead and he was flanked by a red roan on his right and two others, an albino and storm cloud grey colored, Pegasis on his left.

Striding through the group and not caring who was in the way they made their way to True Heart and Noble Heart.

Blue, the blue roan, spoke, "We need to know where this gang is that attacked Fauna. Swift Heart said you would tell us." He put emphasis on the "would" part, letting them know there was no other option.

Hearing that Fauna had been beat up sent a surprised murmur through the others. Grumpy, Champ, Brave Heart, and Playful Heart stepped closer, wanting to hear this.

"Why do you need to know that? You're not planning to get revenge are you?" True Heart questioned the posse, knowing full well it was exactly what they intended.

"Of course we are! They attacked and beat on a girl! And not just any girl, our girl, so lay off the mushy gushy crap and tells us where they are!" The red roan next to Blue snapped at her.

Grumpy scowled, "Fauna was attacked and you didn't do anything about it?"

True Heart sighed in exasperation, the one thing she was trying to avoid unfolding before her eyes. "It happened yesterday when she was on Earth, a gang tried to steal her wallet and, you know Fauna, she doesn't take being bossed around, so she fought back. It was 5 against 1 and Fauna didn't fare well."

Blue's ears flicked back against his skull, "She can't see out of one eye and she is still too sore to shift. Her one hand is wrapped in bandages because her knuckles were bleeding from punching so many guys and there are band aids on her face. She's lucky."

Champ cracked his knuckles as he listened to Blue describe Fauna's condition. He had always thought of Fauna as a little sister and it burned him up to hear what these punks had done to her. He knew Grumpy, Brave Heart and Playful all felt the same, which was why they all had angry looks on their faces.

"We're going with you. Someone needs to teach those jerks a lesson." Champ told them.

"Bet they'd think twice if they were knocked around a little also." Grumpy commented.

"See this is exactly why we aren't telling you how to find them. Violence should not be responded to with violence. That's how wars get started." Turning to the Pegasis True Heart continued, "We understand your kind has a special hatred for humans, but we can't allow you to take your aggressions out on a group of boys who were most likely misguided down the wrong path."

Blue spread his wing to keep Red Snout from charging the founders. "This isn't some random stranger on the street! She's a member of your family, or at least we thought she was."

The grey stepped forward now, "Perhaps we can reach a compromise. We will give you until the end of today to deal with this gang. If we hear that no progress has been made, we are going to deal with them our way."

True Heart and Noble Heart exchanged a look before consenting to their terms.

Blue turned to his friends, "Come on Red Snout, Thunder, Frosty. Let's go keep Fauna company." Spreading their wings they took to the air.

Grumpy conjured a cloud mobile which Champ, Playful, and Brave Heart jumped into.

"And where do you boys think you are going?"

"To deal with the gang. We'll try it your way first Noble Heart but if it doesn't sink in then we are doing it their way."

As the four of them headed down to earth they tried to formulate how they were going to deal with the gang, without fighting. It was hard to do with Blue's description of Fauna's injuries fresh in their minds.

"First things first we have to find them sports fans. Then we can play it by ear and see how it goes." Champ offered.

Grumpy scoffed, "Like we don't already know. It's a gang, they aren't going to listen to reason. They pride themselves on being tough and not being pushed around."

"Hey look! I think that's them!" Playful Heart was pointing to a group of 5 teenage boys leaning against an alley wall outside the mall. All were wearing the same red bandanas with blue skulls.

"Charge!" Brave Heart leapt out of the cloud mobile before he realized it was still 10 feet off the ground. Pin wheeling his arms he yelped as he crashed to the ground.

"Yup. They are going to be truly terrified of us."

"You never know Grumpy, they may appreciate Brave Hearts street smarts." Playful Heart pointed to their lion cousin, lying flat against the pavement. Grumpy merely rolled his eyes with a groan.

The group approached the gang confidently. One of the members spotted them and hit his buddy, "Hey Frank, getta load of these things."

"What the hell? Did Halloween come early this year? Man Simon all the freaks are gonna be comin out."

Champ stepped forward, "No we're Care Bears and we're here to talk to you about what you did to a friend of ours."

The gang members started laughing, "Did you hear that boys? The wittle Care Bears wanna tawk to us about what we did to their wittle fwend." Simon mocked them in a baby voice.

Grumpy balled his paws into fists. He could see some lingering bruises and cuts on the gang members, indicating Fauna had gotten in some good hits of her own. "So you think it's all right to go beating up on people if they don't give you what you want?"

Frank sneered down at him, "Oh, so you're friends of that chick we ran into yesterday with the weird tattoo on her forehead. Hey man she landed the first blow, think of it as…self defense." His gang mates snickered.

"If she'd just given us her money when we asked 'nicely' the first time, we wouldn't have had to resort to such violent means." Another of the gang members told them in a sarcastic voice.

Brave Heart growled and stepped forward, "You shouldn't be taking peoples money either. If you need cash so badly get a job. What your doing is illegal. You could go to Juvenile hall."

Simon imitated him all through his speech, "Oh man. You walking stuffed animals are some kinda sappy. Buzz off before we make you, just like we did to your friend."

As he turned away Playful Heart called after him, "Wow what a coward." Simon froze and turned, "What did you call me?"

He laughed, "You heard me. When it's 5 of you against one girl you're all big and tough, but when the odds are more even, you run away like scared little cowards. You're not a gang, you're just full of it."

Simon advanced on him with his fists raised, "I'm gonna hit you so hard you're fuzzy mutant friends are going to be dizzy." Using his tail, he anchored himself to the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder and pulled his eye lid down while sticking out his tongue.

Right before Simon landed his first punch, Playful Heart stared him. The teenager yelped as he was enveloped in the warm tingly light. Playful Heart was surprised when he saw a memory of Simon's projected in his head. It showed him being yelled at by an older man and they being whacked across the face. Understanding he retracted his Cousins Call.

"Simon if your dad beats on you, you don't have to stand for it. Tell the cops."

"I can handle my old man. I don't need help! Besides, I've seen what happens to them foster kids. Nobody wants to adopt you after you turn 13; they think you're too much trouble."

The other gang members and Care Bears were listening intently to the conversation. Frank stepped forward, "Dude is that true? Does your old man beat on you?"

"Shut up Frank."

"Why didn't you say somethin? You could've come to live with my mom and me."

Simon scowled at him, "You can barely feed yourselves and your brother, let alone one more mouth. Isn't that why you're out here stealin from people?" Frank and his brother looked down at the pavement.

Grumpy and Champ exchanged a look, "True Heart was right." "Yeah and we're never going to hear the end of this." Champ grinned at the blue bear.

"We'll make a deal with you all, If we help you out, will you stop beating up on people and break this gang apart."

One of the more quiet members of the gang scoffed, "I doubt you can. But yes if you can deal with my alcoholic mother, help Frank and Vinny's mom get a job, get Simon out of his house, and help Tim-bo with his grandma then we will listen to what you have to say.

Champ and the negotiator shook on it. The gang members were very skeptical about this and doubted the Care Bears would be able to help them out.

After updating True Heart and Noble Heart on their progress with the gang, things moved surprisingly quickly. After helping so many people over the years the founders had developed a number of useful connections.

First a call was placed to social services who went to investigate Simons dad. He was then placed in the custody of Franks mom who for taking him in would receive a check one a month to help support him. They also got her a job at a nursing home to help her bring in more money. The nursing home also offered Tim-bo a job and n exchange they would send a nurse over for a couple hours everyday while he was at school to take care of his grandma. They then spoke with Arnie's, the negotiator, mom about going to AA meetings at the local counseling center. Further more, all the boys were signed up to be big brothers to other troubled youth in their community so they would have an extra curricular activity to fill the rest of their free time.

Grumpy went to tell the Pegasis about the progress with the gang. They were at Swift Heart's house with Fauna, grazing on the trees nearby. Fauna was still in her human form sitting with Swift Heart watching the boys grazing.

Frosty, the albino Pegasus, was the first to spot Grumpy. He nudged the grey one next to him, "Hey Thunder, look who's back."

Swift Heart, Blue, Red Snout, and Thunder all looked over at Grumpy. Fauna looked away, not wanting him to see her face.

"We talked to the gang and they're breaking up. True Heart was right, they were just misguided down the wrong path because of circumstances beyond their control. They want to meet you to apologize to you Fauna."

She snapped her head around to look at him, "Apology not accepted. I'm not giving them the satisfaction. They will just have to live with what they did to me for the rest of their lives, just like I will."

Grumpy smirked, "Figured you'd feel that way. Glad I was right about one thing."

"So that's it? They beat her up and get an excuse because they've had a hard life?"

Grumpy looked to the outspoken Red Snout, "Oh not they are going to be punished. They have to spend 4 hours everyday for a year working in a shelter for abused animals so they can see the consequences of beating on things that can't fight back."

Fauna stood and moved over to Blue, hopping on his back. "I guess I can be happy with that. After all I did get to knock them around a little bit. I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to the Falls tonight."

He watched the flock take off. They were out of sight before Swift Heart spoke up, "She's going to be fine Grumpy. It's just going to take her awhile to trust humans again. After all, she hasn't exactly had very many good experiences with them."

He sat in Fauna's previously occupied chair. "Something tells me she's reached the end of her rope. Any more bad experiences and I think we're going to loose her from the Care Bear Family."

Swift Heart laughed, "Oh Grumpy. You worry too much. Just sit here and relax for awhile."

Simon was heading home from the shelter with Frank and his brother when a pair of glowing golden eyes appeared in the darkness. "I hear you've turned around and are following the rules now but I just want to make one thing clear. If I hear you are harassing anymore people, then we are going to deal with you ourselves."

They saw the outline of 4 large shapes surround them in the darkness.

Simon held up his hands, "We turned around, honest! And we're sorry for what we've done."

"I sure hope so." The voice hissed before the eyes disappeared along with the mysterious shapes.

Knees trembling the three boys hurried home as fast as their legs would carry them.


	4. Wasting Time

Wasting Time

Today, the caring meter summons was answered by Bright Heart, Gentle Heart, and Cheer Bear, who had Love-a-Lot with her, as she was still somewhat depressed over Valiant's departure some time ago, and Cheer and her were what most referred to as BFFs. The case actually had not com from a kid specifically, but from her parents who were very concerned about their sixteen year old daughter's rather drastic drop in grades on her most recent report card, even though she was always insisting she was at the library. Gentle Heart sat up front, wearing a baggy green sweater as she always did in public, as it helped draw attention away from her *ahem* natural gifts. Both Cheer and Love-a-Lot were in the backseats and they were both wearing very similar clothing, not really decent but something they both liked and wouldn't keep them from being admitted to the places they wanted to go.

The house the arrived at was a fairly typical one story house, an old "wartime" house built after the second world war to accommodate returning veterans, with a lawn and a big evergreen tree in the front yard. The four Care Bears went up a short three step front porch, and Gentle Heart knocked on the doorbell. She wasn't that shy with adults, in fact she preferred to talk to adults, as the sensible ones at least didn't say things that embarrassed her to no end. The middle aged man that answered the door were certainly shocked to see the Care Bears standing there.

"Umm hi, who and what are you?" he asked.

"We're the Care Bears," Gentle Heart said softly. While she was certainly more comfortable around adults, she was still shy, thankfully Cheer Bear took over at that point.

"We saw you were really bummed out about your daughter," Cheer explained, "'cause she's not doing that great in school."

"Umm OK," The man turned his head back inside and called, "Dear, we have guests."

After being introduced and invited inside, Cheer, Love-a-Lot, Bright Heart and Gentle Heart sat down to find out what the problem was. Apparently their daughter, Cheryl, had been showing signs of being exhausted by school when she first started grade 11, but she seemed to be doing well at the midway point of the first semester. However when the final grades for the first semester were handed out in the report cards, Cheryl's grades had dropped dramatically, just barely high enough to pass her classes.

"She always says she's studying at the library when she goes out or doesn't come home right away after school," her mother said, clearly worried.

"I picked her up from school yesterday and dropped her off at the library," Cheryl's father continued, "It was at a mall so I thought she might be just hanging around with her friends, but I saw her leave shortly after I dropped her off and go to some place called 'The Zone'. I would have checked it out but I was called into work and had to leave."

"She went to a place called The Zone, thanks we'll look into it," Bright Heart said, getting up and shaking the father's hand.

A moment later outside, Bright heart pulled out a small hand-held device from his pocket. Gentle Heart noticed and asked.

"Bright Heart, what is that?"

"It's GPS, a complex electronic map computer, useful for finding out where things are," the purple raccoon explained as he began to search for the place called The Zone in the city.

"Where did you buy that?" Cheer asked.

"Ha, I didn't buy it, I made it," Bright Heart said triumphantly.

"Umm don't those things tend to, ya know, explode?" Cheer said as she and Love-a-Lot took a step back. 

"Hey, that only happened once!" Bright Heart countered.

"What about that 'PSWii60' idea of yours," Love-A-Lot said.

"OK, twice."

"Then there was that teleporter project of yours, good thing you never tired it on one of us," Cheer added.

"Ok three times," Bright Heart was clearly getting very annoyed now.

"And what about…" Gentle Heart was cut off by the raccoon as he shouted.

"OK! So a lot of my things break down, but I've already tested this thing before I brought it with me," as if to confirm what he said, the device began beeping, "there, you see, now I know where Cheryl's been spending so much time, let's go." They climbed back into the Cloud Car, with the two pink bears in the back seat once again, and took off following the directions of Bright Heart's GPS.

A while later, they landed in the parking lot of a small strip mall in front of the place with the words "The Zone Gaming" plastered on a sign over the top.

"We're here, I guess we should go in," Bright Heart said.

What greeted them inside The Zone wasn't something they were at all familiar with. There were at least three dozen people sitting at computer all of which were against the wall. The people witting at the computers were mostly all boys around the ages of 14 to 22.

"So she's been playing video games here the whole time," Bright Heart said, "Well et's look for her."

"If it's all the same to you, I think me and Love-a-Lot will wait outside, this is more your thing Bright," Cheer said as she and Love-A-Lot turned and left.

Gentle Heart, who was looking even more nervous than she usually did quickly and softly said, "You can handle this, I'll wait outside," before turning and walking outside as fast as she could without running.

Bright Heart blinked in surprise but just rolled his eyes and turned back to the room of computer gaming teens and young adults, "All right, time to find Cheryl," he said, deciding to start out by asking the man who was behind the front counter.

Outside, Cheer and Love-A-Lot were talking. Despite the fact that she had said she'd be able to handle Valiant Heart's absence numerous times, the bear of love was clearly depressed, in fact she hadn't done any attempted matchmaking since the wolverine departed.

"Com'on, girlfriend, you can't stay in this funk forever. I know you're head over paws for Valiant Heart but you're not the only one who misses him," Cheer said, placing her hand on Love-a-Lot's shoulder.

"I know, but I can't help it, Cheer, I miss him," Love-a-Lot said, sighing sadly.

"Then find something else to do," Cheer said, a bit exasperated, "there see, Gentle's all bummed out and shy about being with Bright Heart because she never does anything with him." That seemed to brighten Love-a-Lot up and she actually smiled before walking over to where Gentle Heart was sitting on the sidewalk, next to the door to The Zone.

"Hey Gentle Heart, are you all right?" Love-a-Lot asked.

"Oh, hey Love-a-Lot, I'm fine, I guess," Gentle Heart said, looking up briefly.

"Well why aren't you inside helping Bright Heart?"

"Because, well…" gentle Heart paused then spoke very softly, "I'm scared."

"Scared?" Cheer said, walking over, "Scared of what."

"The people in there are all young adult or teenage video game nerds, and while I do love Bright Heart," she hugged her ample best to herself defensively, "I'm afraid that I might gather too much attention in there."

"Oh, so you're afraid that the guys in there, none of whom have ever had a date, will swarm you or something?" Cheer asked. Gentle Heart nodded.

"Don't be afraid, public places like this have laws to protect people, besides," Love-a-Lot added, "most of them are probably so focused on their games that they won't even notice you."

"I guess…" Gentle Heart said, not really reassured.

"Are you and Bright Heart having problems?" Love-a-Lot asked, now she was concerned for her friend.

"Well, I don't know, we just don't do much. I sit around his workshop while he works, sit on his couch and watch TV with him, we go out for dinner sometimes and to movies that both of us like, but…" she trailed off.

"You've never made out with him huh?" Cheer asked, causing the lambs face to turn bright red.

"Cheer!" Love-a-Lot said, "don't say things like that to her, you know how shy Gentle Heart is," the pink bear turned back to Gentle Heart, "When Bright Heart comes out, maybe you should ask about going out and doing more than just eating and watching a movie, maybe stargazing, or maybe spending the night together. You don't need to _do_ anything but you two could use some quality time."

"Besides, it would be a good idea if you pulled him away from those computers and machines of his," Cheer said.

"I guess so but…" Gentle started and stood up, turning to look at the door, "Bright Heart's been in there over ten minutes, wouldn't he have called us by now?"

"Hey, you're right," Cheer said.

Seeing a chance, Love-a-Lot pushed Gentle Heart forwards, "Now's your chance, Gentle, go inside and invite him out, or in if you want."

"And here," Cheer quickly moved up beside Gentle Heart and pressed something into her pocket, "for later, just in case," she winked as Gentle Heart nodded, took a deep breath, and headed inside.

As the door closed behind Gentle Heart, Love-a-Lot smiled, "She'll be all right. We can go in and get them if something happens."

"Good for you girl!" Cheer said, jumping happily, "I knew you'd feel better once you got back to what you love."

"Speaking of love, how are you and Champ doing?" Love-a-Lot asked, smiling rather deviously.

Upon entering, Gentle Heart immediately went to the counter and got the attention of the counter attendant.

"Did a purple raccoon come in here?" she asked.

"Yeah," the man behind the counter said, "he's sitting over there with Cheryl," he gestured to near the back of the main gaming room, where Gentle Heart could make out the purple raccoon's shape sitting at a computer.

"Thank you," she said turning to walk towards Bright Heart. While the counter attendant had been very polite, Gentle Heart had to force every step down what she mentally thought of as the "nerd gauntlet". Fortunately, as Love-a-Lot had said, all of the guys were too focused on their various video games to even notice the lamb in the room. Eventually Gentle Heart found herself between Bright Heart and a teenaged girl, whom she guessed was Cheryl. She gently tapped Bright Heart's shoulder to get his attention and the raccoon paused his game and turned to her.

"Hey Gentle Heart," he said, happy to see her, "you should try this place, the first hour you get to play is free."

"That's nice," Gentle Heart said, her voice laced with worry, "but Bright Heart, we're here to help Cheryl."

"Are you talking about me?" Cheryl turned from her game to look at Gentle Heart. Cheryl was wearing jeans and a t-shirt; Gentle Heart took this opportunity to attempt to do her mission.

"Cheryl, your parents sent us here, they're worried about you and how your grades are dropping. You can't spend all your time here it's going to cause you some serious problems."

"You can't tell me how I spend my time," Cheryl said, sounding annoyed, "and my grades are fine!"

Gentle Heart recoiled a bit from Cheryl. Bright Heart got up from his chair and stood behind Gentle Heart. The shouts had drawn some attention from the other gamers in the room, and they all immediately noticed the well-endowed green lamb in the room.

"Hey, look, she's hot," one said. There were a couple wolf whistles aimed at her and Bright Heart decided not to let it go any farther. He stood defensively in front of Gentle Heart and gave a wide glare to the entire room.

"Back off, she's with me!" he said, doing his best to sound bold, despite feeling nervous. Before there could be a response he took Gentle Heart's hand and said, "let's leave before they get any worse," he said carefully leading her out and keeping her close. Gentle Heart leaned close to the raccoon as they left, she felt safer with Bright Heart protecting her. Cheryl blinked as she observed the events then quickly grabbed the stuff she had brought with her.

Cheer and Love-a-Lot were talking when Bright and Gentle exited The Zone.

"I see you two are doing well," Love-a-Lot.

"Yeah, you go girl!" Cheer said, "but where's Cheryl?" As if in response, Cheryl emerged from The Zone, looking a bit relieved.

"Good, looks like you two were able to convince her to stop making her parents worry so much," Love-a-Lot said.

"Not really," Cheryl said, before either Bright Heart or Gentle Heart could reply, "After seeing how all those freaks treated Gentle Heart, I figured that I don't want to end up like them, which I will if I keep spending my time here."

"So, are you going to study?" Bright Heart asked.

"Well, I need something to fill my time now," Cheryl sighed, "at least I had a short break from that kinda work," she turned and headed for the library in the nearby mall.

"Well, not the result we were hoping for, but a mission accomplished is a mission accomplished," Love-a-Lot said, "Let's go home." Cheer nodded and conjured a cloud car which they got into and used to head home.

In the backseat, Gentle Heart put her arms around Bright Heart, "Thanks for standing up for me back there," she said, blushing slightly.

"Ah well, shucks, it was nothmmph," Gentle Heart forestalled his reply by kissing him on the mouth. Bright Heart was stunned but hugged and kissed her back. Gentle Heart backed off, her face bright red.

"That was nice," Bright Heart said, smiling back at her.

"Yeah, that was… nice," she said smiling sheepishly. She felt around in her pocket for the item Cheer and given her and took a quick look at it, she started when she saw what it was and thought, _'oh my, I wonder how far she thinks my night with Bright Heart will go?'_


	5. Internal Conflict

Internal Conflict

The school councilor sighed as she looked up from the report she'd been given, Alex and Daniel again. The two 15 year old boys were definitely two of the oddest children in the school, they weren't human for one, Daniel was a badger, with the same black and white stripes one would expect, and he was well built and about 4'10", Alex on the other hand was a fiery red fox with and average build and was about 4'5". The school councilor put his hand on her forehead.

"Alex, Daniel, this is the third time this month alone that I've had to talk to you about your fighting. Why do you two keep doing this?" she looked from one to the other but neither the badger nor the fox replied, just shooting cold glares at each other in silence.

The councilor sat down, "I'm sure your guardians have spoken to you about this a number of times so I won't tell them, this time, but at least try to avoid getting into a fight again. Now you have class in about half an hour so get going so you can have time to eat your lunch." The two animal teens turned and left, fortunately there was enough space in the door to keep them from bumping into one another.

In the lunchroom, Alex made a beeline for the one spot he always loved to sit, across from the third animal kid in the school. Her name was Germaine and she was a raccoon with colored light and dark blue. She was an introverted bookworm and rarely spoke with anyone when she didn't have too as she was incredibly shy and didn't like the teasing she always received about the fact that she was a four foot tall raccoon.

"Hi Alex," she said, looking up as he sat down, "where were you?"

"Had to talk to the councilor again," he muttered opening his own lunch.

"Oh no, you weren't fighting with Daniel again were you?" Germaine was shocked, but hardly surprised.

"Well, yes…" if anyone else had asked, Alex would have exploded at them and said it was none of their business, but he could never get mad at Germaine, he liked her too much and she was probably the only real friend he had.

"Alex, why do you two fight all the time?" Germaine asked.

"Cause that badger annoys me, he's always trying to show how much better he is that me and saying the can take me easily."

"That's because you keep saying that I'm a stupid jock!" Daniel said, walking past as he shot the comment at Alex. The Fox's hands balled into fists and eh would have gotten up to go after him again, but Germaine put her hand on his shoulder.

"Let him go, I don't see why you two are always goading each other into fights, what reason do you two keep doing this for anyway?" she asked.

"Umm… you know, I can't remember," Alex said, before continuing to eat his lunch.

Germaine had finished eating and pulled out the book she had been reading before, "boys," she muttered under her breath.

Up in Care-a-Lot, someone else had noticed the incident down on earth. Snowy Heart fox had seen the caring meter drop and, once he asked Share Bear to go with him, he was ready to head down on a caring mission. He wasn't expecting to meet new members of his family today, not on a routine caring mission.

Snowy and Share departed for Earth a short time later in a cloud car, Snowy drove having finally learned how to drive and Share sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"How long do you think this will take?" Share asked while still staring ahead.

"I'm not sure," Snowy replied unconcerned, "it depends on how cooperative the teenagers we have to help are. Why do you ask Share?"

"Well," Share turned her head slightly so she could see Snowy's face, "because I was hoping that if this doesn't take too long that you and I could go down to Earth tonight."

Snowy smiled, "Would you like to go out tonight if we have time, Share?" he asked.

"Of course," Share smiled and leaned over harder and Snowy removed his right hand from the steering wheel to place it around Share's shoulder as they moved in for a landing at the high school.

Snowy and Share stood in front of the school, discussing how they might proceed.

"So, should we just go inside or should we wait?" Snowy asked, glancing over at the light purple bear in the sky blue poodle skirt.

Share was about to reply that they should wait until school was out, when the last bell rang. Share clapped her hands together happily, "Oh good! Looks like we'll be able to catch them on their way out." Expecting the usual flood of people eager to get out of the school building, Snowy Heart Fox and Share Bear both stepped to the side of the steps to allow people through. As expected the teenagers poured out of the school in rapid succession, eager to be away from classes and going home, or in some cases to a part time job. Snowy and Share were watching the crowd, mostly unnoticed, waiting for their caring beepers to go off, which would happen when the people who were the objectives of their caring mission passed by.

The crowd began to get thinner as the larger crowd departed and the stragglers began to exit. Snowy's mind had wandered to possibly where he and Share could go for dinner later when his beeper went off, snapping him back to reality. He blinked away the haze in his vision and looked around, as did Share whose beeper had also gone off. Their attention was almost immediately on the three Care Bear Cousins who had just exited the school, a badger, a fox who were both male, and a raccoon who was obviously female. Snowy double checked his beeper before speaking up.

"Guess we found them," he said, trying to hide his surprise.

Share made no such effort, "This is great! We're not only finding the people we have to help, but they're members of the Care Bear family," the purple bear raised her voice to catch the attention of the three animals, "Hello! Fox, Badger, Raccoon! Over here!"

Alex was walking next to Germaine and Daniel was a fair distance ahead of them, but all three of them turned towards the voices and saw the white fox in orange shorts and a t-shirt and the light purple bear wearing a sky blue blouse and hoop skirt.

"Who's that supposed to be?" Daniel asked to no one in particular, "Guess I should go find out."

"What's _she_ so excited about?" Alex asked, intent on continuing to walk, but Germaine held him back.

"They're more people like us, we should go and meet them," Germaine said.

"So why do you need me here?" Alex asked, pointing to Daniel, "he's going to talk to them by himself."

Germaine blushed slightly, "I'm nervous and I'd rather that you were here," she said softly.

"Oh fine," Alex said, defeated. He couldn't refuse a request like that from the raccoon, so he begrudgingly went along with her to meet the fox and the bear.

Snowy and Share had shut off their caring beepers once they realized that these were the people they had been sent to help. Share had decided that they would get more accomplished faster if they invited the three newcomers to join the Care Bear family.

"So, who are you supposed to be exactly?" Daniel asked, looking Snowy and Share up and down, "you look sort of like us."

"My name is Share Bear," the purple bear replied happily.

"And I'm Snowy Heart," the fox said, "We're members of the Care Bear family, and so are you three."

"Wait wait wait wait, Care Bears?" Alex asked, confused.

"Yes, or rather you three are Care Bear cousins, like Snowy Heart," Share said, placing her hand on Snowy's shoulder.

"So what does that mean?" Germaine asked softly, "and why are you here?"

"It means you're part of a family of animals whose job it is to help people care and share their feelings," Snowy replied.

"And," Share clapped her hands together, smiling, "we're here to help you, and also to invite you to come and live with us up in the Kingdom of Caring," Share pointed to the sky, "up in the clouds."

Alex gave them a weird look, "Umm okaaaaaaaay then," he said, his voice indicating he didn't really believe them.

Daniel eyed them strangely, "Are you serious?" he asked, not sure what to think. Germaine however seemed to brighten up quite a bit.

"Are you offering to let us live with you?"

"That's right," Snowy said.

Germaine smiled, "Is there a school up there."

"Well, not exactly, but we have access to everything you need to continue your education."

"Then I accept," Germaine said.

"That's good, but what about you two," Snowy asked, looking to the badger and the red fox.

"I need to think about it," Daniel said, turning and walking away, a bit dismissively.

"Yeah, sorry, but I'm not really up for joining a rainbow color club," Alex said, turning away, briefly stopping to look back at Germaine.

"Well it's their loss, now should we go and talk to your parents, Germaine was it?" Share asked, taking her hand.

"Oh," Germaine was a bit sad that Alex and Daniel had declined and her face remained sad as she replied, "I don't have parents, I'm just a city ward. I only have a couple pairs of clothes, and their getting pretty old."

Share nodded, noticing how Germaine's school clothes were rather worn out, looking very much like they needed to be replaced.

"Then I guess you can just come with us now, you need to meet the founders and the rest of the family," Snowy said.

"OK," Germaine nodded, her voice lowering as she thought about having to meet so many new people in one day, "but how are we going to get there?"

"That's the easy part!" Share said, turning and using her symbol to conjure a cloud car.

The blue raccoon was amazed, "How did you do that?"

"It's hard to explain, but you'll learn how to do it too," Share said, taking her hand, "Com'on let's go meet your new family." Germaine nodded and let Share lead her to the back seat. Snowy once again took the wheel and they began to drive up to the sky. Despite being buckled in, Germaine couldn't help but hold onto the side of the car and the seat. Being in an open vehicle flying into the sky was a dizzying experience, and while she was not scared, she was still stunned, so much was happening so fast.

A short time later, every member of the Care Bea family who wasn't on a caring mission was gathered in the Hall of Hearts to welcome Germaine to the family. Only Noble Heart was there to introduce here, as True Heart had been needed on a caring mission, and he stood alone up at the front with Germaine sitting next to her. The blue raccoon was quite embarrassed and stared down at her lap the whole time.

"Thank you all for coming," Noble Heart said, trying to call the assembled group to order, but as usual not all of them were paying attention. About half, however, did notice the new arrival and quieted down once they noticed. As the din was not as great as usual, since about a third of the family were on caring missions, Noble Heart continued, speaking over the noise, "Snowy Heart and Share Bear have brought a new member of the family to us," Noble Heart looked down at the obviously embarrassed raccoon, "What's your name miss?"

"It's Germaine," the raccoon said, just loud enough so that Noble Heart could hear here.

"Well welcome to the family, Germaine, now does anyone have a suggestion for a new name for our new family member?" Noble Heart asked.

Confused, Germaine spoke up sounding concerned, "What do you mean a new name, is something wrong?"

"Oh no, nothing's wrong, all members of the Care Bear family have a special name to show what their mission is. Snowy Heart over there was raised on earth like you and his human name is 'Kona'. Your name will come from an emotion or principal you embody," the horse founder explained.

"Oh," Germaine said. She thought for a minute while the present members of the family began debating what the blue raccoon's name could be. Looking up at the horse founder, Germaine said, "I don't know what my name should be, and I'd like to think about it for a while. Can I just go by Germaine until I decide?"

"Of course, if that's what you want," Noble Heart said. Turning back to the assembly, the horse found he had to shout to get the rest of the family to quiet down, "Germaine has said that she'd like to keep her human name for now, she will let us know when she is ready to take on her Care Bear Cousin name!"

There were a few sighs and a few protests, but none that were really significant. While Playful Heart had been entertaining the name "Shy Heart Raccoon" even he knew that it was ultimately up to her to decide when she got her own name and even what that name might be.

The assembly began to disperse but Noble Heart called Snowy and Share up so he could have a talk with them.

"Now," he said, sitting down with Snowy, Share, and Germaine, "You said that there were two more down there, but they refused to come back with you?"

Share nodded, "Yes, Noble Heart, they said they would need time to think about it."

"That would be Alex and Daniel," Germaine said, "Those two aren't ones to join up in anything, and they fight a lot."

"Fight?" Noble Heart looked over at Germaine.

"Yes, they fight. And I don't just mean arguing, they try to hurt each other. They've attacked each other at least three times in the last month that I know of, and usually over minor things. I think those two just like hurting each other."

"So that's what the caring mission was!" Snowy said, remembering that they had been on a mission before recruiting the blue raccoon to the Care Bear Family.

Noble Heart cocked an eye at Snowy and Share, "Oh? Are you saying that you two didn't actually finish your caring mission?"

Share blinked the smiled and blushed in embarrassment, "Oops! I guess we were just so excited about finding new family members that it slipped our minds."

Noble Heart sighed and rolled his eyes, "I'll forget about it this once, but only because Germaine here can help us figure out how to help those two," he turned back to the blue raccoon, "Now what can you tell us about your two friends, Alex and Daniel?"

"Alex is a fox, and Daniel is a badger," Germaine began, a bit nervous as she felt like she was being interrogated. Seeing the reluctance in her eyes, Noble Heart put a comforting hand on the raccoon's shoulder.

"Don't be nervous, you don't have to say anything unless you want to."

Germaine smiled and nodded, "Thank you, but those two need help and now that I have the chance, I'd like to help you help them. Alex has severe anger issues and he's always getting worked up over the least little thing, I think the only place he doesn't get mad at stuff is at home with his grandparents."

"Grandparents?" Snowy asked, "Does he have animal parents?"

"Oh, no," Germaine shook her head, "They've always been his legal guardians, but they're of senior age so he's always just called them his grandparents because of the age difference. He seems to take a lot of stuff at school personally especially from other students, even when the teachers are hard on him.

As for Daniel, he just seems to want to avoid fitting in, he wants to stand out be doing stuff that no one else does. I don't know him as well as I do Alex but I know he doesn't like going to public school and he's said that he thinks his parents don't really notice him and only keep him around as a tax write-off. I think Daniel is trying to antagonize his parents by starting these fights, and he knows that Alex can easily be goaded into a fight; I think he's doing it so his parents will want him to leave so he can leave without them trying to keep him at home."

"I see," Noble Heart said, sitting back with his chin in his hand and he digested this information, "If that's the case, why didn't Daniel come with you when you were offered to come and live up here."

"Well, Daniel tries to avoid being part of a crowd, and I guess he didn't want to join a group of animals that were a lot like him. As for Alex, this was probably just too much of a change for him to accept right away, if he even wants to come and live here, it might be the same for Daniel as well," the blue raccoon's voice trailed off.

"Don't worry, we'll help them," Share said, standing up and moving next to Germaine, taking her hand, "If you know where they live then show us and we'll do our best to help them."

Germaine smiled at the purple bear, "Thank you, Share Bear, and you too Snowy Heart," she added, turning to look at the white fox who was still seated.

"It is our pleasure," Snowy said, standing up.

"And your responsibility," Noble Heart said, standing up and giving Snowy and Share a somewhat severe look, "I forgive you for leaving your mission early because you did complete at least one of your missions. I checked the mission briefing and it said that Germaine was also one subject of your mission, albeit a minor one, as she has had trouble making friends. But as long as you're happy here…"

"Oh I am," Germaine said, "This place is wonderful and if I could I would like to live up here from now on."

"Of course you can, you're a Care Bear Cousin, this is your home," Noble Heart placed his hand on her shoulder, "But you two should try to help Alex and Daniel today before it gets to be too late in the day."

"Yes, Noble Heart, we will," Snowy said, sighing in exasperation. Noble Heart ignored the sigh and just left, mentioning that he had plans to prepare for later.

Snowy and Share offered to help Germaine get some new clothes before they went back to Earth, which the raccoon accepted earnestly.

"Looks like we may have to forget about our date," Snowy said.

"Aww," Share groaned, "and we can't rush this or we'll get in trouble with Noble Heart. Guess we can make plans for another day," she added, trying to cheer up Snowy. Snowy smiled and gave Share a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, that would be nice," he said, noticeably happier.

A short time later, Germaine stood looking at herself in a mirror. She had thrown out her old clothes and acquired some new ones courtesy of Grams Bear, who kept a stock of spare clothing both for potential new family members, and for when current family members needed new clothing on the spot. The blue raccoon was wearing a yellow shirt that went down past her knees and a white t-shirt; there weren't many other combinations from the stock that fit her but nonetheless she liked the clothing.

Once she was satisfied with how she was dressed, Germaine got into a waiting cloud car with Snowy and Share, the one who was driving this time, and they headed back down to earth. Germaine knew Alex better so at her suggestion they went to Alex's house first. The house in question was a wartime house on the corner of a crescent street with a large tree in the front yard and a fence surrounding the back yard. As she had been there before, Germaine took the lead stepping up the stairs to the front door and ringing the doorbell. The woman who answered was an elderly woman, looking at least 70 years old. The woman smiled as she recognized the blue raccoon on her front steps.

"Why hello Germaine, it's nice to see you," she said, looking up and noticing Snowy Heart and Share Bear standing behind the raccoon, "who are your friends. My my, you look a lot like Germaine and Alex."

"Oh," Germaine stepped aside to allow Snowy and Share to introduce themselves.

"My name is Snowy Heart Fox," the white fox said.

"And I'm Share Bear, we'd actually all like to speak with Alex," Share added, smiling sweetly.

"They're friends, Mrs. Kitun, can we speak with Alex please?" Germaine asked.

"Of course," Mrs. Kitun stepped aside to allow the three Care Bears in, "Just go sit in the living room, I'll call for my grandson."

Snowy, Share, and Germaine made their way to the living room, Germaine led them as she had been here before. The living room was decorated traditionally, exactly what one would expect the living room of an elderly couple to look and feel like, and they sat on the couch to wait for Alex. The red fox arrived about a minute later, he saw Germaine and the two Care Bears and his expression changed to one of half-surprise and half-irritation.

"Hi Germaine, what are those two doing here?" he aske,d trying to keep calm but struggling noticeably.

"Well, we came to try and help you," Snowy said, standing up and walking until he was standing right in front of the other fox. Alex was a bit taller than Snowy and gave him a look that said that he clearly did not want help.

"Well, help with what?" Alex asked, glaring at the arctic fox cousin.

"With your anger issues and your fighting, and to invite you to come with us and…" Ales cut him off.

"Come with you where? To a psychiatrist? Hah! I don't need help and maybe I didn't say so earlier, but I'm not interested in joining up with your little crew! I'm happy just the way things are!" Alex turned and stormed off back to his room upstairs.

Share got up and she and Snowy were about to go after him when Germaine spoke up, "I'm sorry about that, I didn't expect him to be so harsh. Let me talk with him, I might be able to change his mind and then you two can go see about helping Daniel."

Snowy and Share exchanged looks then looked back at Germaine, "If you want to," Snowy said, "then go ahead, we'll be back as soon as we can."

"Good Luck," Share took Germaine's hand briefly before she and Snowy departed. Germaine nodded before taking a deep breath and heading up the stairs to Alex's room.

Outside, Snowy and Share got in the cloud car that they had parked in front of Alex's house and drove off, Share checking the address for Daniel's house while Snowy drove.

"Think Germaine will be all right?" Share asked.

"I hope so, she said she's known Alex for a long time so she might have a better chance at convincing him to leave than we would," Snowy said. The rest of the short drive passed in silence until they found themselves landing in front of the house they had learned was Daniel's. The house in question was much bigger than Alex's had been, suggesting that Daniel's adopted parents might be better off than Alex's, or just preferred a more lavish lifestyle than the elderly couple. Share hopped out of the car and did her best to dash in her poodle skirt up to the door in order to ring the doorbell. Snowy caught up to Share just as the door opened and the badger Daniel appeared before them.

Daniel raised his eyebrow at the two care bears before saying, "Oh, it's you guys from the school," he said, not rally sounding either surprised or interested that they were there, "So why are you here?"

"Well, we're here to ask again if you'd like to join the Care Bear family," Share said.

"Look man, I have enough issues dealing with the family that picked me up here so I don't really need another family to ignore me except when they need me for somethimg," Daniel said.

"It's not like that at all up there," Snowy said, "And what do you mean by that."

"What do I mean?" Daniel rolled his eyes, "Dude, I'm practically invisible in there, ever since I started school my so called parents ignore me unless they need me to do chores or some other task they could easily do themselves but are too lazy to."

"Is that why you keep acting out at school?" Share asked.

Daniel sighed, "Yeah, what of it, at least people pay attention to me there, and if starting fights is the best way to do that then so be it."

"You don't have to start fights, why not try making friends?" Snowy suggested.

"Tried it, so unless you got a better pitch to me for joining your family, then I suggest you leave," Daniel said, moving to close the door.

"Well, you wouldn't be ignored up there, I'm sure you could find a few friends up there and you could live on your own and…"

"Whoa, you sayin' I'd have my own place up in this sky city of yours?" Daniel asked, actually sounding interested.

"Yes, of course you would!" Share perked up, seeing now that Daniel might be considering joining the Care Bear family.

"Hmm," Daniel seemed to be thinking, "if you're willing to wait then I can have what I want to take with me packed and ready to leave in 15 minutes."

"Of course we'll wait," Snowy said, "we'll be down here when you're ready to go."

"Thanks man," Daniel took and shook Snowy's hand strongly, "See ya ina minute, my parents probably won't even notice that I'm gone." The door shut leaving Snowy and Share waiting on the front steps.

"Think this is the right thing to happen here?" Snowy asked.

"Well, he might not be doing these things for the right reasons, but this does help. And if it makes him happy and his guardians don't mind it's not like we can stop him," Share said.

"I guess so. I wonder how Germaine is doing."

Meanwhile, Germaine had made her way up to Snowy's room and proceeded to knock on the door. For a moment there was no answer then The door opened and Alex leaned his head out, he looked a bit annoyed but calmer than he had a minute ago.

"Hey, Germaine, are that bear and fox here?" he asked.

The blue raccoon shook her head, "No, they left to go and see Daniel. May I come in."

"Sure, I don't see why not," Alex said, stepping back and opening his door to let Germaine in. Alex's room was sparsely decorated, old toys were shoved under his bed and there wasn't much in here as his grandparents tried to raise him with minimal aid from technology. Germaine sat down on the bed and Alex turned to face her.

"Are you here to try and convince me to join this 'Care Bear Family'?" he asked.

Germaine nodded, "Yes."

Ales sighed, "I can't believe this, why am I being asked to do this, things are fine here, I don't need a change of pace. I mean, I understand why you've gone up there, you never really had a home or proper clothes, and I can tell that you're getting both of those and probably more up there, but I have a family down here and then there's school…" Alex's voice trailed off. Despite having over-reacted to the suggestion downstairs, Alex could never be angry at Germaine, she was really his only friend at school or even on earth, other than his grandparents.

"You can finish school up there, they said I can, and it's not like you'll be alone. I'll be there, and so will Daniel," Germaine clamped her mouth shut once the badger's name exited her mouth.

Alex groaned, "So that aggravating badger will be up there too?" he asked.

"Well, probably, Snowy and Share said they were going to see if they could talk him into it," Germaine explained.

Alex sat down on his bed next to the raccoon, "I don't know. What reason do I have to go up there, well other than you being there?" Germaine blushed and was about to reply when a voice from the door got their attention.

"Well, for one you would be finding your place in the world, my boy," Alex's grandfather stood in the doorway. He was wearing carpenter's overalls and was almost bald, clearly from his age.

"What do you mean, Grandpa?" Alex asked, "Don't you and Grandma want me around anymore?"

"What made you think we didn't?" Alex's Grandfather stepped into the fox's room, "Your grandmother and I love you with all our hearts, but we've always known that you'd have to leave someday. I'm not saying you have to leave now but at least this way you know you have a home to go to when you do leave."

Seeing that Alex was starting to warm to the idea, Germaine spoke up, "Your grandfather is right, and it's not like you couldn't ever see them again, you could easily come and visit them, especially once they teach you how to drive the cloud cars."

"You see, it's not like you'd be saying goodbye to us, and I know you're still young but it might be good to take your friends up on their offer now, the sooner you learn about the beings you really are the better things might turn out."

"He's right," Germaine nodded, "this world you'd be entering will let you explore you dreams and even try some things you might never have thought of before, what do you say."

Alex looked up, and smiled, a rarity for him, "Well if you two insist, what else can I say. I'll try to get packed quickly."

"Here, I can help you son, I'll be sure to tell your grandmother the news, don't worry, we'll be fine without you."

Germaine smiled as she watched Alex and his grandfather packing the red fox's things, she felt a great sense of accomplishment is helping guide Alex to this conclusion. Hey, maybe that should be her name!

By the time Snowy and Share arrived with Daniel, Alex has finished packing and was ready to leave. The fox and badger scowled at each other when they saw each other, but Germaine managed to calm Alex down as he loaded his luggage and then sat between them as Snowy began to drive back up to the Kingdom of Caring. As they rode, the five of them discussed what they though Alex and Daniel's names should be, after they explained the purpose behind the way that they were named. By the time they arrived back up in the cloud city it was nightfall and most of the Care Bear family were either in bed or about to be. Snowy and Share led Germaine, Alex and Daniel to the Hall of Heart, thankful to find Tenderheart, Brave Heart, Noble Heart and True Heart were still there and awake, Bedtime Bear was there as well, getting filled in on the day's events that he always slept through.

The founders, leaders in training, and Bedtime Bear looked up to the sound of Snowy Heart clearing his throat.

"Snowy Share finally back from your mission?" Tenderheart said, a hint of impatience in his voice.

Hoping to avoid an argument, Brave Heart spoke up, "So, are these the new cousins we heard about?"

"Yes," Share said, "and actually, they managed to decide on their names on the ride up here form earth."

"That's good to hear, so what are they?" Noble Heart asked.

"You can call me Anger Heart Fox," Alex said.

"I've chosen Defiant Heart Badger," Daniel added.

"And you, Germaine, what did you decide on?" Noble Heart asked.

Germaine smiled, "My name is Guidance Heart Raccoon."

Following their introductions, they decided it would be best for them to meet the rest of the family and get their new homes the following day, until then, they could sleep in the guest quarters in the Hall of Hearts.


	6. Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover

**Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover**

Grumpy pulled the cloud mobile up to Swift Hearts rabbit hole entrance and honked the horn impatiently. "Swift Heart come on! We gotta get going!"

"Or what? We're going to hit air traffic?" She called up to him.

"No smart-ass but the sooner we get there the sooner we can get it over with."

She emerged from her hole wearing her favorite track pants and tank top combo. In one hand she had her iPod and in the other a plastic bag through which Grumpy could see various snack items.

"Did you pack me a snack pack?"

She nodded as hopped in the car. "Like I have a choice. Whenever you're hungry the whining just never ceases."

Reaching into the bag he pulled out a Fruit by the Foot, "Fine see if I share this with you then."

"Just drive stingy. And take your time, I'm in no hurry. I could definitely stand to get out of here for a day."

"Everyone still talking about the wedding?"

Swift Heart nodded, placing her feet on the dash board. "Everyone won't stop talking about how it's so exciting that Proud Heart and Loyal Heart are getting married. I think I've seen more of Cheer and Love-A-Lot these past couple days then I normally see them in a month. Fauna still won't go near Proud Heart; she is so skeeved out over the idea that she's preggers."

Grumpy laughed, "Yeah that sounds like something she'd do." He watched as Swift Heart plugged her iPod into the stereo and cranked the song that was playing. It was one of his favorites and the two began to sing along as loudly and as obnoxiously as they could.

The two were heading down to a suburb of New Orleans to help a boy who was having issues fitting in. They were going to see if they could figure out why he was regarded as different and hopefully help him make friends.

"Aww this song is great, have you heard it yet Grumpy?"

"No. Turn it up. Who is it?"

"Nickleback. It's their new song I'd Come for You."

Just One more moment, that's all that's needed.  
Like wounded soldiers in need of healing.  
Time to be honest, this time I'm bleeding  
Please don't dwell on it, cause I didn't mean it

As Grumpy listened to the song he couldn't help but glance at Swift Heart. He couldn't believe Bright Heart had figured out he had a crush on her and was using it as a means of blackmail to get him to help with the inventions.

I cant believe I said I'd lay our love on the ground  
But it doesn't matter cause I've made it up forgive me now  
Everyday I spend away my souls inside out  
Gotta be someway that I can make it up to you now, somehow

Of course he had denied it at first, yelling at the raccoon cousin and telling him he was crazy, however Bright Heart had then presented him with a list of times he had seen him staring at her and acting oddly around her.

By now you'd know that I'd come for you  
No one but you, yes I'd come for you  
But only if you told me to  
And I'd fight for you  
I'd lie, it's true  
Give my life for you  
You know I'd always come for you

I was blindfolded, but now I'm seeing  
My mind was closing, now I'm believing  
I finally know just what it means to let someone in  
To see the side of me that no one does or ever will  
So if your ever lost and find yourself all alone  
I'd search forever just to bring you home,  
Here and now this I vow

Grumpy scowled a little as he thought about it some more. Why would it be such a bad thing for the others to know he had a crush on Swift Heart? It wasn't like she hadn't flirted back with him on more then one occasion. That train of thought quickly got de-railed as he thought of Cheer and Love-a-Lot. Love-A-Lot would stop it nothing to fix the two of them up and Cheer would be wanting, "All the mushy details" which would be beyond humiliating. Plus, what if Swift Heart just laughed him off if he ever admitted how he felt to her. He would never hear the end of it.

By now you'd know that I'd come for you  
No one but you, yes I'd come for you  
But only if you told me to  
And I'd fight for you  
I'd lie, it's true  
Give my life for you  
You know I'd always come for you  
You know I'd always come for you

Reaching over she grabbed a pack of Gushers that was resting against his leg. As her fingers brushed against his pants he felt a warm tingle travel up his spine. With a sigh he resolved to for now just admire her from a distance and wait on telling her how he felt until he was certain she wouldn't treat it as a joke.

Yes I'd come for you, no one but you,  
Yes I'd come for you  
But only if you told me to

And I'd fight for you  
I'd lie, it's true  
Give my life for you  
You know I'd always come for you

"Hey look! I think that's the town down there. Hurry up and land this puppy, I've got to pee!"

No matter what gets in my way  
As long as there's still life in me  
No matter what, remember you know I'll always come for you  
I'd crawl across this world for you  
Do anything you want me to  
No matter what, remember you know I'll always come for you  
You know I'll always come for you

After Swift Heart emerged from the gas station bathroom she and Grumpy headed into town. While the streets were mostly deserted, the few people they passed kept giving them weird looks. One group of women tilted their heads together as soon as they passed, "Must be friends of dat Etienne." "Jus wha our town doesn't need. More freaks."

Swift Heart smiled sweetly at them, "Pardon me ladies but could you possibly direct us to Etienne's house? It's just so hard to pick out the designated 'freak' house in this charming little suburb of yours."

Grumpy kept himself from laughing as one of the women answered her, "He don live in town. Etienne live in de swamp outside de limits." She smirked, "Ya can' miss him, I guarantee."

"Thank you so much. Have a nice day ladies." Slinging her arm through Grumpy's she pulled him in the direction the woman had indicated.

Out of earshot of the women Grumpy scoffed, "Apparently this Etienne kid is disliked by everyone. Talk about the apple falling right next to the tree."

"Small towns sometimes breed small minds. That's the whole point of our little field trip here today Grumpy-pooh."

"Did you just call me 'pooh? As in the honey addicted stuffed animal?" She hip checked him, "Shut-up, you know you like it." If she only knew how much.

As they walked the houses began to thin out as yards were overtaken by swamp grass, mud, and large trees whose roots stretched into the water. It soon got hard to see their feet and they had to be careful about where they stepped.

"I can't believe he lives out here. This undergrowth is impossible to navigate through."

"Grumpy look out!" Swift Heart managed to pull her arm from Grumpy's just in time as he narrowly avoided slipping on a frog. However he unfortunately lost his balance and fell into the swamp.

Surfacing, spewing swamp water and pulling plants from his eyes, he heard Swift Heart laughing from the bank. "It's not funny. This water reeks."

"You got knocked in by a frog. I call that funny. Just swim back and we'll get you cleaned up. Watch out for those logs though."

Grumbling he started to stroke towards shore. However before he got there one of the logs drifted in front of him. Instead of moss covered wood he realized it was covered in glistening emerald ridges. "Swift, I I I I don't think this is a log."

Grabbing a vine she tossed it to Grumpy. "Quick grab it and I'll real you in before that gator gets you!"

The gators head broke the surface, teeth exposed in a smile as a deep laugh sounded from his throat. "Ah don worry chere. I'm not gonna munch yo beau heya. Jus wanna give 'im a lift ta shore since he seems less den aquatically inclined."

Both Swift Heart and Grumpy were stunned as the alligator pushed Grumpy to shore, climbing out of the water after him. Standing on two legs, they saw he was wearing jeans and had a plain white belly just like Jolly had when they first met him. His emerald scales were glistening from the swamp water coursing down his body.

Swift Heart steadied Grumpy as he came up on land. "Thanks for helping him out. I prefer not to go into the water if I don't have to."

"Gee thanks Swifty, glad to know my almost drowning isn't enough of a push for you." He tossed one of the slimy swamp plants on her, getting a squeal out of her.

The alligator laughed again. "So wa brings you two ta mah swamp? Not de best place for a romantic getaway."

"We're not on a date!" Grumpy all but shouted.

"What loud mouth means is we came to help a kid named Etienne. Do you know where he lives?"

"Oui chere. Ah know where he lives." Spreading his arms he continued, "I be Etienne."

The two exchanged a look that said, "Of course he is."

"Why don you come wid me to mah house an we can talk. As much as ah love dis swamp, it ain't de best place fo' entertainin company."

Moving a clump of swamp grass aside he bowed to Swift Heart, "Aftah you mademoiselle."

"Nice to see chivalry isn't dead." Moving away from Grumpy she smiled a thank you at Etienne before moving through the brush. Grumpy too mumbled a thanks as he walked by the alligator.

The walk to Etienne's home was short and surprisingly pleasant. The alligator talked non stop about his home and proceeded to point out his favorite sunning and fishing spots. After about 5 minutes he stopped and spread his arms dramatically before him, "An dere she is. Mah own lil' slice of de swamp."

A small moss covered cabin stood before them. It was a foot off the ground on a wooden platform that created a crawl space under the house. On the porch was a swing and a couple overturned barrels.

"Come on in an I get you sometin ta eat." Leaving them in the front room, he headed towards the back of the cabin where Swift Heart and Grumpy assumed the kitchen was. Etienne had a couch facing a small TV, a coffee table stacked with magazines, and a few knick knacks scattered on the shelves on the wall. The shades were open on the two windows letting the light from outside drift in.

The two Care Bears sat on the couch. Leaning forward Swift Heart saw that the magazines were all culinary, "So I'm guessing you like to cook?"

Etienne's laugh echoed in the kitchen, "Oui. It is mah passion. Here we are. Hope you don mind re-heated gumbo an corn bread." Emerging with three plates and now wearing a tight white t-shirt, he placed the food on the coffee table. Grumpy's mouth began to water at the smell and he eagerly took a bite.

"This is the best gumbo I have ever had!"

"Merci frer. Kind of you to say so. You de first guests I've eva had."

Swift Heart swallowed her mouthful, "Talk about getting side tracked. That's the whole reason we are here. Why don't the people in this town like you? Is it only because you look different?"

He nodded, "Dat and de fact I notin but a walkin talkin gator. People round dese parts don much care for mah relatives. Dey tink we nothin but brainless monsters dat eat everytin in our paths. De fact I act like a human but look like a swamp monster jus make me a freak in der eyes."

"Have you ever tried speaking with them? Mmmm Swifty are you eating your corn bread?" Before she could answer Grumpy snatched it off her plate. She scowled at him, "Guess I'm not."

"Ah enrolled in de high school fo' a tahme but de local PTA got a lil' 'concerned' for der petites so in de interest o' keeping de peace ah no longa attend."

"I'm not saying they are right but in their defense you are rather intimidating on first glance. But they should have taken the time to get to know you. Never judge a book by its cover, at least that's what they always say."

He grinned at Swift Heart, "Bet dey nevah came across mon pere in de swamp when dey said dat."

Both Grumpy and Swift Heart looked surprised when they heard that. "You mean you know your birth parents?" She asked.

"Oui?" Etienne was confused as to why this came as a surprise to them.

"None of us do. We were all orphaned in one way or another." Grumpy told him.

"Je suis désolé. Mon famille is de one ting dat kept me sane." He stopped looking like he was considering something. "Would you like to meet dem?"

"That would be awesome!" Swift Heart hopped up and pulled Grumpy with her.

Etienne led them to the back of the house and through the kitchen. They stopped for a brief moment to appreciate Etienne's sanctuary. It was immaculate, with a full spice rack, dozens of pots, pans, knives, cleavers, spoons and all sorts of utensils. There was everything one would expect to find in a professional kitchen. And his fridge was huge!

Holding open the back door he ushered them into his back yard. The whole area was duckweed filled water with only a little sandy beach behind the house and surrounded by cypress trees. In the water and sunning on the shore were at least a dozen alligators.

Etienne strode right up to a gator that had to be 14 ft long. "Grumpy, Swift Heart, dis is mon pere and dat exquisite creature on his right is mon mere." Low rumbles came from both gators as Etienne addressed them. He then proceeded to jump on top of his dad and linked his arms under his massive jaws, closing them tight. The giant gator thrashed around tossing him onto the ground in front of him. His mom rumbled something once more.

"She said don be nervous. De ain't gonna bite."

Some of Etienne's siblings were slowly making their way towards Grumpy and Swift Heart. They were bumping them with their snouts, causing Swift Heart to laugh because it tickled slightly.

"How come they've stuck around. No offense Etienne but I always thought alligators were solitary."

He grinned at Grumpy and tapped his snout. "Hit de nose on de head dere. We are a unique brood. My parents cared bout each other so much dat dey mated fo life an chose ta always protect me an mah frères et sœurs."

"That's it!" The boys looked at Swift Heart, waiting to see what caused her out burst. "Your parents cared about each other so much that all their love and devotion turned you into a care bear cousin. And they continued to love you even though you were different looking!"

"Ma mere always said dat only a fool would come between a gator an her hatchlins." He rubbed his head affectionately against his mothers.

"One problem Swift Heart, why only him and not his siblings?"

She pointed a finger into the air, "Elementary my dear Grumpy. Etienne was the first born. Am I right?"

"Guilty as charged cher."

"Ha! I so win!" she started to do a victory dance.

"Swift Heart Caring Missions aren't a contest! Why do you have to be so competitive?" He scowled at her folding his arms.

Twirling up to Grumpy she pinched his cheeks, "Awww someone is a grumpy gills because they didn't figure out where Etienne came from. Boo hoo hoo."

"Oh get off me!" He snapped. Stepping away from her Grumpy went to stand with Etienne and his parents. "So Etienne, what are you going to do now?"

The gator cousin grinned at Grumpy, "I was hopin ta join you an Swift Heart. Don get me wrong; love ma famille, but de content here. As we established, it looks like ah was meant fo' bigger an bettah tings."

Swift Heart was moon walking behind them, "Oh yeah! One more Cousin! That's another point for my team!"

"For the last time Swift Heart, it isn't a contest!" Groaning he turned back to Etienne who was laughing at the bunny's antics, "You know you'll be stuck living with her and the others in the Forest of Feelings."

"Oh, I tink I can manage dat. As long as we can take mah house wid me?" They looked at the house on the platform.

Grumpy sighed and took out his communicator, "Tender Heart, I'm going to need a couple of extra hands to assist us with an air lift."

While Grumpy spoke with Tender Heart, Swift Heart had calmed down enough and was sitting with Etienne's siblings. "So first order of business, we need to get you a Care Bear name. It has to…"

Etienne held up his hands, stopping her. "I tink I get it from watching you two. An I tink I will go wid de name Illusion Heart Alligator, cause as wid me, not everything is as it seems."


	7. Finding your Voice

Authors' note: all the songs used in this chapter are copyrighted to their respective composers and singers. I'm not listing the songs titles here because I want the readers to be surprised.

Finding Your Voice

Anger Heart gritted his teeth as he swept up the floor of the Hall of Hearts, which was covered in ribbons, rice, and other festive paraphernalia from the aftermath of Loyal Heart and Proud Heart's wedding. He wasn't the only one who was cleaning up, Love-a-Lot, Funshine, Snowy Heart, Champ and Playful Heart were also cleaning up, having either been selected or volunteered for the job of cleaning up the mess.

"Why do _I_ have to clean this up!" Anger Heart asked aloud, not really to anyone specific but not really wanting a response, "So Loyal Heart knocked up his girlfriend Proud Heart, I have to sit through a dreary wedding and then I have to clean up this mess! How does that work at all?"

"Com'on, sport's fan," Champ said, pushing a large table to the side to they could clean up the floor underneath where it had been, "you didn't have to help out during the wedding."

"Neither did Defiant Heart, and he's not here helping," Anger Heart shot back.

"Well that's just the luck of the draw, sport's fan," Champ shrugged and continued pushing before grabbing a broom and sweeping up.

"So where's Guidance Heart?" Anger Heart asked, "I thought she was supposed to be helping us out here."

"I offered to take her place," Love-a-Lot said, "She said Bright Heart invited her to watch something with him."

Anger Heart bared his gritted teeth at the ground, Bright Heart again! Guidance Heart had been hanging out with that other raccoon too much for it to be just a coincidence anymore, the nerdy raccoon even had a girlfriend of his own, and a hot one at that, what was he thinking?

Anger Heart didn't voice any of this, but picked up his pace so he could finish as soon as possible so he could leave and try to go and see Guidance Heart. The others paid no attention to his outbursts, they were used to it by now and like with Grumpy Bear's near constant grumbling, they had just accepted these anger flares as part of who Anger Heart Fox was.

Playful Heart and Funshine had volunteered to help out with the cleaning both because they wanted to, and because it gave both of them a good excuse to have some fun with the wedding decorations after they promised not to do anything disruptive during the wedding or reception. Playful Heart especially was having fun pulling the ribbons and streamers off of the ceiling, he had climbed up to the ceiling on a ladder and had actually used the various hooks and bars that were up there for hanging decorations to climb all over the roof, despite protests against such things, and was using his tail to hang from them while he pulled the decorations off of the ceiling, balled them up, and either dropped or threw them down for Funshine to catch in the trash bucket she was carrying around.

"Ready, Funshine? Here it comes," Playful wound up and chucked the current ball of streamers and ceiling hangers down but off target, forcing Funshine to run so she could catch it.

"Got it!" she shouted triumphantly, as the ball landed in the garbage, turning into just a pile of garbage in the can.

"You really should be careful, Playful Heart," Snowy Heart said as he piled up dishes to take to the kitchen, where Lotsa Heart and Good Luck were washing them, "you'll get seriously hurt if you fall from that height."

"Oh lighten up, Snowy," Funshine said, flicking a small ball of paper at the white fox, "we're just trying to make this chore a little more fun!" Snowy rolled his eyes but didn't say anything else as he carried the latest load of dishes off to be washed.

Anger Heart did his best to ignore the antics of the two family pranksters as he swept up. He scooped what he hoped was the second last pile of rice into the dustpan and dumped it in a nearby trash bin before going to take care of the last part of the floor where there were still rice and streamers lying around. Champ was now folding up the chairs and tables from the reception and piling them off to the side, for him and Lotsa Heart to carry back to storage later. Love-a-Lot was grabbing a mop and bucket to clean up some of the food spills from where the tables had been.

Just as he finished with the last bit of dry mess on the floor, Anger Heart was hit in the head by a ball of junk that had been stuck to the ceiling. He growled angrily and he pulled the stuff off his head while Playful Heart, who was still hanging from the ceiling, snickered trying to use his hands to hold in his laughter.

"You think that's funny! Why don't you come down here and I'll show you how funny it really is!" Anger Heart shouted while shaking his fist up at the laughing monkey.

Love-A-Lot managed to diffuse the situation by letting Anger Heart leave and telling him he should go and try to talk to Guidance Heart. As the fox left he brushed past Illusion Heart Alligator and Defiant Heart Badger.

The gator cousin heard the fox swearing to himself about "that irritating monkey" and asked, "Is dat renard always angry?"

"Why do ya think he's called 'Anger Heart'?" Defiant Heart quipped, "That fox finds a reason to get mad about almost everything."

Inside, Playful Heart was still sniggering from his little "attack" on Anger Heart. Funshine was also laughing but managed to calm down enough to shout up at the monkey.

"All right, the ceiling's clean, funny monkey, come down before you fall"

"Aww, all right," Playful Heart began to climb back over to where the ladder he had climbed up on was still standing, but at one point, he missed his hand hold and slipped. With a cry of dismay he fell. Everyone still in the Hall of Heart's gasped but Funshine, being the closest to where Playful was falling, dashed over as fast as she could and managed to catch him, however the force of the impact knocked both of them to the floor. Fortunately by some miracle neither of them was seriously hurt, sure they were both in pain but nothing that wouldn't fade in time.

Playful Heart grinned and propped himself up on his arms, "Nice catch, Funshine."

"Hey, anytime," Funshine said smiling back up at him. The two of them remained lying there for about a minute before Champ shouted across to them.

"Get a room you two!"

"Hey let them be," Love-a-Lot said, giving Champ a shove, "they look happy and the cleaning in here is done."

Getting to his feet Playful Heart extended his hand down to Funshine and pulled her up. "I have an idea. How about we go snatch some of the leftover wedding cake and go eat it over by the Caring Meter."

"I could go for that. Can you believe all the work Illusion, Treat Heart, and Bedtime put into it?"

"I heard Illusion wanted to put cayenne in the frosting and Treat Heart threatened to clobber him with a rolling pin."

Funshine laughed and grabbed a large section of the cake and 2 forks. "Well obviously she got her way because I definitely taste raspberries in here."

Hesitating a moment Playful Heart looked through the refrigerator, "Hey someone else beat us to the extra cans of whipped cream. No fair!"

Funshine placed a hand on his shoulder, "Don't sweat in Playful," She held a bag of the chocolate flowers used to decorate the cake "I saw where Illusion stashed these!"

"I knew I kept you around for a reason." Slinging an arm around her waist he walked with her out of the kitchen.

As they approached the Caring Meter they saw Fauna lying on top of it and Swift Heart, Grumpy, and Brave Heart sitting around the base laughing.

Fauna squirted the missing whipped cream into her mouth before letting the can hang in her hand over the side of the Caring Meter. She was still in the gold dress she had worn to the wedding. Below her the others were taking turns drinking from what looked to be a bottle of champagne and taking whippit's from the whipped cream can just like Fauna.

"So looks like we found the after party." Playful called as he and Funshine sat with them.

"Hey! Ooo you guys brought cake. Wanna share?" Swift Heart asked held the bottle out to him.

Moving his arms protectively over the cake he turned his nose up at her. "No! This here be our swag."

"Suite yourself." Brave Heart snatched the Champagne away from Swift Heart and took a large swig.

Funshine looked up at Fauna, "So where was Blue? I haven't seen him around lately."

"He's not going to be." Rather then look at her she took another squirt from her can.

"Oh no what happened? Did you two break up?"

Grumpy cut in, "Nope, not even close." He gave a tipsy little snark.

Fauna turned on her side to look down at him and glare. "Blue was chosen by Wind Rider to be his heir. So he has a lot to learn and doesn't have time to spend flying between here and the Falls."

"Hasta la vista Azul." Grumpy took the bottle from Brave Heart. However before he could take a swig, Fauna's can connected with his head. This got a round of giggles from the others.

Brave Heart held up a full can of whipped cream, "Here's a toast. To Loyal Heart no longer being a free man, and to Proud Heart landing herself a personal servant."

"Cheers!" Sounded from the small gathering.

"You so should have included that in your toast at the wedding."

"Proud Heart has been moody enough lately Swifty. I wanted to survive the night!"

At Bright Heart's house, the purple raccoon was showing Guidance Heart some of his Star Trek model collection. Guidance Heart had discovered that she was a fan of Star Trek, and had begun watching it at home so she naturally began to socialize with Bright Heart more often and they would discuss things about their favorite Star Trek series.

A heavy pounding at the door to Bright Heart's house got their attention and Bright Heart excused himself to see who was at the door. The raccoon was surprised to see that it was Harmony Bear at his door. She never came to visit him.

"Oh, hi Harmony, what brings you to my house? And why the loud pounding?" Bright Heart asked.

"I never know what you're working on Bright Heart, just thought I'd make sure you hear me knocking," Harmony explained, "is Guidance Heart here?"

"Yeah she's here, just a moment," Bright Heart turned away from the door and called back to the other raccoon, "Hey Guidance Heart! Harmony Bear is here and she wants to talk with you!"

"All right, no need to shout," Guidance Heart emerged, "Hi Harmony, I saw you at the wedding, what brings you over here?"

"Well, girl," Harmony removed her dark purple sunglasses, "I wanted to talk to you about your singing."

Guidance Heart's face turned red and she politely excused herself from Bright Heart's house, shutting the door behind her, "What do you mean?" she asked, sounding a bit panic stricken.

"I heard you yesterday after the rehearsal dinner," Harmon explained and she took Guidance Heart's hand, after placing her sunglasses in their case and placing the case in her pocket, "I was in the Forest of Feelings for a walk, listening to the neat tunes of nature, when I heard you singing."

"You heard that," Guidance Heart was clearly embarrassed, but Harmony just smiled at her.

"Yes I did, girl, and I was wondering, maybe you'd like some help in learning how to sing better. You have a good voice but I can show you how to sing better, and maybe help you get over that little issue of stage fright you seem to be suffering from, don't worry," Harmony clapped her on the back softly, "I won't tell anyone about this, my house has good acoustics but won't let anyone hear you from the outside."

"All right, I guess it couldn't hurt," Guidance Heart said.

"That's cool, com'on we should start right away," Harmony grabbed Guidance's hand and pulled her along to her music studio.

Shortly after they left Bright Heart sat down to watch some of the shows he had recorded on his DVR, when there was another heavy pounding at his door. Bright Heart got up and was greeted by Anger Heart Fox, who was breathing heavily having run nearly all the way to Bright Heart's house.

"Is Guidance Heart here?" Anger Heart demanded.

"Umm no, she left a few minutes ago," Bright Heart was a bit taken aback by how aggressive the fox was acting.

"You sure? She's not here?" Alex asked again, leaning forwards and glaring at Bright Heart.

"I'm sure, Harmony was just here and Guidance Heart went with her," Bright Heart said, backing up a few paces.

"All right," Anger Heart backed off, "Just remember you have a girlfriend already, maybe you should spend more time with her instead of ogling someone else, especially since Gentle Heart's got everything you could want and then some!" Before Bright Heart could reply, Anger Heart slammed the door and stormed off, leaving a somewhat confused Bright Heart to shrug and go back to his television.

The next morning Swift Heart, Cozy Heart, Treat Heart, and Gentle Heart sat in lawn chairs on the banks of the Rainbow River. Their attention was fixated on Etienne as he swam his morning laps. The newest addition to the Care Bear Cousins had become the main source of eye candy for the girls and they did not let him go to waste.

"Look at those arms. I cannot get over how defined they are. Can't believe you got to see him first Swift Heart." Treat Heart commented.

She shifted in her seat, crossing one leg over the other. "What can I say, I just got lucky. Speaking of which," she lowered her sunglasses so she could look at the girls over the top, "Did I mention he was shirtless the first time I saw him?"

Rather then answer, Treat Heart and Cozy whistled in appreciation. Gentle Heart was quieter then the others. While she had come out of her shell she still was one of the shyer members.

"So Cozy and Gentle, your boys don't mind you being here ogling at the new guy?"

"Don't hate Sssswifty. Not that Jolly and I are officially together, but no he doessss not mind."

She laughed, "I am not hating Cozy. I am perfectly happy being free."

Gentle Heart smirked. Bright Heart had let something slip about just how "free" Swift Heart actually was. Coyly she responded to Swift Heart's remark with "What Bright Heart doesn't know won't hurt him."

By this time Etienne had finished his laps and was walking out of the water. He seemed to be moving in extra slow motion, the water rolling off his muscled arms, defined chest, and washboard abs. The early morning sun was coming up behind him giving off a halo effect that made him glow. Even his emerald scales seemed to glisten brighter.

A wolf whistle from Swift Heart brought his attention to the girls.

"Mornin mon cher's. Don you belle femmes have somewhere bettah to be den watchin me do mah laps?" Grinning he walked up to them, stopping behind Swift Hearts chair to lean over the top.

Treat Heart giggled, "We don't know what you're talking about Etienne. We were just enjoying the sunrise."

"Everyday dis week? You gals are makin it hard fo' meh to concentrate. Every tahme I look dis way ah loose count." He fiddled with one of Swift Heart's ears. She smacked him away playfully, unaware a slight blush was on her cheeks.

"Oh dat reminds me Treaty. I was wonderin if I could stop by latah fo' yo' biscotti recipe."

"Of course Illusion, I'll be home all afternoon."

"Tre bien! You have ma tanks." Looking over at Gentle Heart, he saw a lady bug crawling on her head.

"Hold still cher. You seem to have acquired a hitch hiker." Leaning over he gently brushed his hand over her wooly hair to shoo the bug away.

Gentle Heart giggled and blushed, "I don't mind the bugs, but thanks anyway."

Unknown to Illusion Heart or the girls, Anger Heart had wandered nearby, mostly from wandering aimlessly, and the fox had overheard practically everything; he managed to get close just in time to see the alligator flick the ladybug from Gentle Heart's hair. That did it, no wonder Bright Heart was spending so much time with Guidance Heart. Anger Heart stormed off, determined to tell Bright Heart exactly what was on his mind.

Guidance Heart Raccoon was completely unaware of the events going on outside of Harmony's house. The blue raccoon had spent the night at Harmony's house, having been up late practicing and deciding to stay there so they could get an early start on the raccoon's singing lessons. After eating a good breakfast and doing some vocal warm ups Harmony plugged her MP3 player into the speaker system of the music room in her house.

"Well you've done well so far, and since you have such a good talent for this, I think you should try a song on your own, girl," Harmony said.

Guidance blinked, "Are you sure, I mean, what if I mess up?"

"Then we'll laugh about it later, Guidance," Harmony said, "no one but you or me will hear this, so give it a shot," she handed Guidance Heart a sheet of paper with lyrics on it, "take a minute to read over that, you'll need to know it."

Guidance Heart scanned the sheet then smiled a bit, "I know this song. I used to listen to it whenever I had the chance, which wasn't often."

"That's good," Harmony said, selecting the song's karaoke version on her music device, "now give it a shot," the purple bear hit play and Guidance took a deep and began.

"Something has changed…" Guidance trailed off and Harmony nodded, restarting the song and letting Guidance Heart take a deep breath before she started over.

"Something has changed within me  
Something is not the same  
I'm through with playing by the rules  
Of someone else's game  
Too late for second-guessing  
Too late to go back to sleep  
It's time to trust my instincts  
Close my eyes: and leap

It's time to try  
Defying gravity  
I think I'll try  
Defying gravity  
Kiss me goodbye  
I am defying gravity  
And you wont bring me down

I'm through accepting limits  
''cause someone says they're so  
Some things I cannot change  
But till I try, I'll never know  
Too long I've been afraid of  
Losing love I guess I've lost  
Well, if that's love  
It comes at much too high a cost

I'd sooner buy  
Defying gravity  
Kiss me goodbye  
I'm defying gravity  
I think I'll try  
Defying gravity  
And you wont bring me down

I'd sooner buy  
Defying gravity  
Kiss me goodbye  
I'm defying gravity  
I think I'll try  
Defying gravity  
And never bring me down  
bring me down"

As she let the last note trail off, Guidance Heart exhaled, her face was red both from the effort and stage fright. Harmony clapped at her student's efforts.

"That was good, Guidance Heart, how do you feel?" Harmony asked.

"Exhilarated," Guidance Heart said, smiling, "but tired. Can I take a break, I wanted to go and meet with Bright Heart for a bit, he was going to show me how to put a model together yesterday before you pulled me for lessons."

"No problem, girl, I need to clean up a bit," Harmony paused and added, "you spend a lot of time over at Bright Heart's don't you."

"Yeah, but it's all right," Guidance Heart said, understanding what the purple bear might be implying and doing her best to steer her thoughts away from that, "Gentle Heart is over there quite a bit too, the three of us sit and watch old Star Trek episodes. Those two are quite affectionate, not so much when I'm around cause Gentle Heart doesn't like to have an audience, but those two trust each other completely, even when I am spending a lot of time with her boyfriend. Sometimes I hear them together as I'm leaving Bright Heart's place," Guidance Heart smiled as she departed. Harmony rolled her eyes, well at least Bright Heart and Gentle Heart's relationship was going well.

In Care-A-Lot Noble Heart and True Heart were organizing Caring Missions. Reading over the latest bit of information, True Heart realized it was an update from a situation they had encountered 13 years ago.

"Noble Heart, then men who killed Fauna's mother have been found and arrested."

He came over to read over her shoulder, "Really? On what charge?"

Her voice got very quiet. "A poaching charge." Tears rolled down her cheeks, "We should have stopped them all those years ago."

Noble Heart put a comforting arm around her shoulder and kissed her temple, "They disappeared True Heart. We had a mess load of cubs to take care of and didn't have the resources or help to track them down. At least they are behind bars now."

True Heart placed her hand over his, "We can't let Fauna know they've been found. You know how she'll react."

"I know. I feel awful doing it but you're right. Knowing they are locked up will never be enough for her. Not after how she reacted with that gang a few weeks back."

True Heart printed out the information for her files, filed out the forms that said the mission was closed, and placed it in a folder and under other papers on her desk. Erasing the information from the computer she continued on as if nothing had ever come up.

Bright Heart had just finished his morning routine and was just leaving his house to go and see Gentle Heart, when he heard a loud noise moving towards him rather rapidly. Bright Heart turned only to be forced back against his door by a practically snarling Anger Heart Fox.

"What's your deal Bright Heart Raccoon!" he shouted.

"What, I…" but Anger Heart wasn't letting Bright Heart have any words in edgeways.

"While you've been spending all your time romancing Guidance Heart over here under the pretence of having fun with your Star Trek stuff and watching TV! Gentle Heart isn't being fooled! Heck she's down at the river ogling that alligator Illusion Heart while you're probably preparing to go and make a move on Guidance Heart!"

"How could you think that?" Anger Heart whirled around and gaped, Guidance Heart had arrived shortly after he did and had heard the entire rage that Anger Heart had just dumped on Bright Heart.

"Guidance Heart, I…" Anger Heart was stuck for words, which wasn't helped when Guidance actually slapped him across the cheek.

"I don't have feelings for Bright Heart, he couldn't be more in love with Gentle Heart and I, I…" Guidance Heart suddenly broke down and stated crying before running back the way she had came. Anger Heart just stood there with his hand on the cheek where he'd been slapped, letting Bright Heart slip away. Bright Heart didn't think Gentle Heart was being unfaithful, he wasn't in the business of restricting her freedom or actions, especially since they had consummated their relationship.

"What did I just do?" Anger Heart asked aloud, but no one answered, and he slowly shuffled home, a tear trickling down his cheek.

Later that day, Love-a-Lot was taking a stroll through the Forest of Feelings when she heard someone singing. The voice was male but she didn't recognize it, as she approached she finally caught sight of who it was. Anger Heart, with several tears on his face, was strolling around near a pond in the Forest of Feelings, he had his MP3 player's headphones in his ears and periodically he would pick up a stone and try to skip it across the pond's surface, with varying success, as he sang along to the music he was listening to. As she watched the music seemed to have changed because Anger Heart stopped for a moment, then suddenly began to sing with rather great earnest, doing his best to get through the tears which began to flow faster from his eyes as he danced to the music, stopping his skipping attempts altogether.

"I can't fight this feeling any longer  
And yet I'm still afraid to let it flow  
What started out as friendship has grown stronger  
I only wish I had the strength to let it show

And even as I wander I'm keeping you in sight  
You're a candle in the window on a cold dark winters night  
And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might

And I can't fight this feeling anymore  
I've forgotten what I started fighting for  
It's time to bring this ship into the shore  
And throw away the oars  
Baby, I can't fight this feeling anymore

My life has been such a whirlwind since I saw you  
I've been running round in circles in my mind  
And it always seems that I'm following you, girl  
'Cause you take me to the places that alone I'd never find

And even as I wander I'm keeping you in sight  
You're a candle in the window on a cold dark winters night  
And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might

And I can't fight this feeling anymore  
I've forgotten what I started fighting for  
It's time to bring this ship into the shore  
And throw away the oars forever

'Cause I can't fight this feeling anymore  
I've forgotten what I started fighting for  
Even if I have to crawl upon the floor  
Come crushing through your door  
Baby, I can't fight this feeling anymore"

Anger Heart hit the pause button on his player and rubbed the tears from his eyes.

"Someone on your mind?" Love-a-Lot asked, getting the fox's attention.

"Oh what do you want!" Anger Heart said, severely, "can't you let me be sad in peace?"

"I heard about what happened with Bright Heart earlier, why did you do that?" Love-a-Lot asked, walking over to the fox and facing him.

"Because, I thought Bright Heart had designs on Guidance Heart and that maybe he wasn't being faithful to his girlfriend," Anger Heart shuffled and turned away from the pink bear, "but I was wrong and now I really upset Guidance Heart and I don't know what to do."

"Because you love her," Anger Heart spun around, shocked at her statement, but Love-a-Lot forestalled his denial, "I can see it in your face, and in that song you were singing. You were jealous that Guidance Heart was spending all her time with Bright Heart because you're in love with her."

Anger Heart sighed, "Yeah, you're right," he pulled his earphones out and sat down with his feet next to the pond, "Germaine, Guidance Heart has been my friend for as long as I can remember, she was always there to support me, to help me when I had trouble in school, and she even stuck by me when I was fighting with Defiant Heart back in school."

"And you never get angry in front of her," Love-a-Lot added, sitting down next to Anger Heart.

"Yeah," Anger Heart said, "you're the love expert in the Care Bear Family, what do I do?"

"Well, let her cool off for a couple of days," Love-a-Lot said, happy that someone was actually asking for her advice, "The Valentine's Day dance is in three days, by then she should have cooled off and you can talk to her about what you did, apologize, and hopefully patch things up, and maybe tell her how you feel. In the meantime you should apologize to Bright Heart, he doesn't usually hold grudges so that should be simple."

"Thanks," Anger Heart said. He sighed and stood up, "I'll go find the science 'coon and apologize, hopefully things will work out at the dance." Anger Heart turned and left, Love-a-Lot grabbed a flat stone and skipped it across the pond.

"That felt good," she said happily, "Valiant Heart, when are you going to return, I miss you."

"Can't believe he is making me come all the way over here to get a paper he forgot while he was working. I'm sorry do I have the words Air Pegasus stamped on my forehead?"

Grumbling to herself, Fauna entered the Hall of Hearts mission room to look for Grumpy's lost papers. In the next room she could already hear the noise from the Valentines Day Dance. Even though she was bummed about Blue once again not being able to make an appearance, she was still going to attend because it was an important occasion in her surrogate family.

Taking a moment to straighten her red velvet pants and white off the shoulder top; decorated with red ribbon and red hearts on the neck, bust, and hem, she dove into the papers on True Hearts desk.

"How do you forget something you had in your hands all day until the moment you are ready to leave." Blowing her down and curled hair out of her eyes, she moved onto the next pile. Her elbow knocked over the pile on her right and it fell to the floor, splattering papers everywhere. Groaning she dropped to her knees and started to pick the papers back up and put them back into the folder that read "Closed Missions".

Her eyes non-chalantly skimmed over the names and information of those who had been recently helped. The skimming stopped however when her eyes read the words "locked up and charged for 6 counts of poaching. The folder fell from her numb fingers as she started from the beginning of the file.

True Hearts notes said how they were the 4 men who had murdered her mother 13 years ago but had slipped away and were unable to be located. They had finally been incarcerated on another poaching charge and were going to be locked away for 10 years per charge.

Her brown eyes found the part where True Heart had signed off saying there was no further involvement needed from the Care Bear Family and the case was finally closed.

"They found them and didn't do anything. They found them…and they didn't tell me." All the sadness and loss form 13 years ago came rushing back, causing Fauna to bring her knees to her chest and bury her head as tears began to rush from her eyes. Only this time, these tears burned with a new sense of betrayal she never thought she would ever have to feel.

Despite the ticking time bomb that had just been planted, the Valentine's Day dance started without a hitch. Like at Halloween everyone was dressed up but not in costumes but, for the most part, in formal attire. Loyal Heart was there with Proud Heart of course, the dog was in a tuxedo and Proud Heart was in a maternity dress, still a bit loose on her but everyone knew she would fill it out in the next couple months or so. The girls had all picked dresses that suited their individual tastes, except for Guidance Heart, who had been rushed into a side room near the beginning by Harmony, who had insisted that she perform for the family as a surprise, and thus be allowed time to try and control her stage fright.

Anger Heart had arrived early in more casual clothing, a bit dressed up but not as much as some members of the family; the fox was looking for Guidance Heart and once he saw her pulled aside he made his way over to the side room. He knocked on the door.

"Hello, who is it?" Guidance's surprised voice came from inside the room.

Anger Heart opened the door, "Hi, it's me," he said, his voice clearly full of regret.

"Oh, hi," Guidance Heart didn't turn around, she wasn't sure how she should react, she was angry and sad at the same time and so just remained emotionally neutral.

Not being one to beat around the bush, Anger Heart got straight to the point, "Guidance Heart, I'm sorry about what I did, I apologized to Bright Heart already and he said he's forgiven me. What I did was stupid, and I jumped to a conclusion too soon and I was hoping," he took a deep breath, "that you might be able to forgive me."

The blue raccoon stood up and turned around, she looked sad and somewhat relieved, "Anger Heart, I don't know what to say. I forgive you but, I don't know, I hope we can move past this soon, but I just…" she trailed off then added, "please just go for now, I have to try and get ready to sing, Harmony wants me to perform so." The red fox nodded a left. It didn't go as well as he had hoped but maybe things would improve, over a long time.

Playful was going around the snack table munching on things, he wasn't really interested in pulling pranks tonight for once, plenty of time for that later, something that he'd decided was more important was on his mind. The orange monkey was wearing black jeans and a tuxedo t-shirt, nothing fancy because he liked to have more freedom of movement, plus he was never a formal kind of guy so this worked just as well, even if Love-a-Lot had rolled her eyes at his choice of clothing for Valentines Day.

Playful Heart looked up at the door and noticed Funshine arriving, he snickered slightly as her outfit as the yellow bear was wearing a pink jean jacket over white shirt and pink and white polka heart ballerina skirt, and to cap it deely boppers with red sparkly hearts on the end of the antennae. Not one for subtlety he bounced over to her.

"Hey Funshine, nice outfit, I love the antennae," he said, flicking one of them playfully.

"You would, you gave them to me for Christmas," Funshine said.

"Goody, you remembered!" Playful Heart smiled.

"And look at you, nice shirt, didn't expect you to get formal on me," she said, poking the tuxedo t-shirt the monkey was wearing.

"What, who says you need to be formal on Valentines Day," Playful heart threw up his arms in a "w" shaped

"Or dramatic," Funshine said, quickly moving in and kissing Playful Heart on the lips. Playful blinked and smiled.

"Aww, Funshine, do you love me?" he asked in a "make fun of" sort of voice.

"Do I need to paint a sign for you, of course I do," Funshine said.

"Well prepare to be shocked, because the prank monkey loves you too," this time it was Playful's turn to give Funshine a kiss. Funshine smiled then grabbed Playful's hand.

"Let's dance, funny monkey," the yellow bear said, dragging him to the centre of the dance floor. Playful just grinned and went along with it

Once she had seen to Guidance Heart, Harmony decided to seek out Brave Heart. He was wearing a simple suit, the only piece of formal clothing he owned, and being dateless he was eating munchies at the snack tables. Harmony carefully straightened her normal clothes, she hadn't felt like wearing anything formal, and walked over to Brave Heart.

"Hi, Brave Heart, how's it goin'," she asked.

"Oh, not bad Harmony," Brave Heart said, looking up then swallowing, "how 'bout you?" he asked.

"Oh, pretty good, pretty good," Harmony waved nonchalantly, "like the music, the décor?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, they're neat," the lion said, "The food's pretty good too."

Harmony rolled her eyes, such a typical guy, "Well the food's not the only thing that's nice here, there are other nice things."

"Yeah, people are dancing too," Brave Heart commented, casting an eye over the strange dance that Playful and Funshine were doing, which almost didn't match up with the music.

"Well maybe you would like to dance," Harmony suggested.

"I can't dance alone, it's Valentines Day," Brave Heart protested.

"Well you could always ask someone to dance," Harmony gave Brave Heart the best romantic attraction look she could.

Brave Heart stared at Harmony for a moment, blinked, and then said, "Who here would want to dance with me?" before turning back to the food. Harmony blinked then seethed and stormed out of the Hall of Hearts, she was going to get the message across one way or another and she had thought of the perfect way she could do it too.

Jolly was waiting for Cozy Heart by the punch bowl. He kept fiddling with his button up shirt collar and red tie, convinced it wasn't straight. "Blymee OI'm nervous."

"Take it easy homme. Tain't like you expressin yo undying love for de femme or anytin." Etienne laughed at his own joke before looking at Jolly. Seeing the platypuses face pale he quickly stopped. "Non. Jolly tell me it ain't so. Not tonight mon ami."

"Woi not tonoit. It is Valentoines day."

Illusion shook his head at his wayward companion, "Oui so dere be a million oder hommes doin de same ting. It so cliché an unorigional. You want ta do it on a day dat de femme is gonna remembah for de rest o her life."

Considering Etienne's words, Jolly realized he had a point. "Yer roit mate…as usual. How'd you git so bloody smart anyway?"

"It de Cajun in me frer. We know romance no?" He polished his nails on his dark red silk dress shirt.

"Well then it'ssss a good thing you came to the Valentine'ssss day dance issssn't it Illussssion." Both of them jumped and turned, not having heard Cozy Heart come up behind them. Jolly's jaw dropped as he looked her over. She was wearing a white sweet heart mermaid style dress that had a red lace trim over the heart shaped bust and a red lace skirt. On her right cheek was a red glitter heart.

"Croike sheila you look dazzling."

"Awww thanksss Jolly. Swift Heart helped me pick it out."

"Wanna dance love?"

"Absolutley." Taking her flipper in the crook of his arm he spun her out onto the dance floor, but not before sending a wink back to Illusion Heart.

At that point Harmony returned, in a much much different outfit than she had been wearing before. She was dressed in skin tight black lace that was semi-transparent, black gloves with white sections between each of the fingers, black high heels and on her head, was a mass of black hair curlers that was far too many for the amount of hair she actually had with some glitter marking the area above her eyes. She was carrying a CD from her personal collection and she strode over to the area near the stage, careful not to draw too much attention, which was a big challenge for her in the outfit she was wearing.

Suddenly, the dance music stopped as Harmony carefully swapped the disc in the sound system for her own, "This should do the trick," she said as he hit play and moved to her position behind a small curtain that had been hung, originally just for Guidance Heart but now for Harmony as well.

The music started with some strange harpsichord trills that confounded everyone, well almost everyone. Funshine grinned at Playful from where they were standing in the dance floor.

"Aww, did you find one of my favorite songs and splice it into the music?" she asked. But Playful shook his head.

"No, but now I wish I thought of it."

Then everyone heard Harmony start singing as she emerged from behind the curtain and started her performance, even Guidance Heart emerged from her little room in order to watch.

"Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance

Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!

Roma-roma-mamaa!

Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance"

"Hey, she's doing my favorite song, com'on she needs some backup!" Funshine didn't need to drag Playful over to stand near to Harmony where they joined the purple bear in her dance to do Lady Gaga good justice. No one objected

"Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!

Roma-roma-mamaa!

Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance

I want your ugly I want your disease

I want your everything as long as it's free

I want your love

Love-love-love I want your love

I want your drama the touch of your hand (hey)

I want your leather studded kiss in the sand

I want your love

Love-love-love I want your love

(Love-love-love I want your love)"

"She's real pouring her soul into that song," Snowy commented.

"You know that I want you and you know that I need you

I want it bad, bad romance

I want your love and I want your revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

(whoaaa oooh)

I want your love and All your lovers' revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance

Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah!

Roma-roma-maa!

Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance

I want your horror I want your design

Cause you're a criminal as long as your mine

I want your love

Love-love-love

I want your love"

Brave Heart noticed that Harmony kept shooting him severe looks as she was dancing and singing and asked Cheer, who was the nearest to him, "why does she seem so mad?"

"Does someone have to draw a picture for you?" Cheer asked, exasperatedly, "Harmony has a crush on you, you really should talk to her when she's done singing."

"I want your psycho your vertigo stick

Want you in my rear window baby you're sick

I want your love

Love-love-love I want your love

(Love-love-love I want your love)

You know that I want you

('Cause I'm a freak baby!)

And you know that I need you

I want your bad, bad romance

I want your love and I want your revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

(whoaaaa ooh)

I want your love and all your love has revenge

You and me could write a bad romance"

"Look, Funshine and Playful Heart are really helping Harmony," Champ commented, "guess those two are together now, I thought they'd try to mess her up or something."

"Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance

Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah

Roma-roma-maa!

Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance

Walk, walk fashion baby

Work it move that think crazy

Walk, walk fashion baby

Work it move that think crazy

Walk, walk fashion baby

Work it move that think crazy

Walk, walk fashion baby

Work it I'm a freak baby

I want your love and I want your revenge

I want your love I don't wanna be friends

Je veux ton amour et je veux ta revanche

Je veux ton amour I don't wanna be friends

(Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance)

I don't wanna be friends

I don't wanna be friends

Want your bad romance

(Caught in a bad romance)

Want your bad romance!

I want your love and I want your revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

(whoaaa oooh)

I want your love and all your lovers' revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

(Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance)

Want your bad romance!

(Whoaaa oooooh caught in a bad romance)

Want your bad romance!

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-

Roma-roma-maa!

Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance

A slow clapping came from the doorway to the Missions room. Fauna walked slowly into the main room, continuing to clap. "Wow Harmony…that was some performance. I mean it was great how passionate you were and how clearly you got your message across. I mean, it's great how you didn't hold anything back and you laid all your cards on the table." Her words dripped with sarcasm.

Now that she was in the center of the dance floor, the others could see her pants were stained with wet spots and the red eye glitter she was wearing was running down her cheeks. In her hand she clutched a crumpled piece of paper.

"It's so nice that we've all gathered here to celebrate love. Because that's what we do right? That's our shtick? We help people express themselves so they can lead happy lives."

Confused looks were being exchanged. They could clearly see Fauna was upset about something but they had no idea what it could be. Holding up the paper, she turned slowly for all to see before she focused her attention on Noble Heart and True Heart. She could see True Heart knew exactly what the paper she was holding was.

"Fauna dear let me-"

"Shut up!" she yelled at her. Tender Heart moved forward, "Fauna you can't speak to True Heart like that."

"Oh I think I can. I'd like to read for you all the 'Valentine' I received while running an errand for Grumpy." Opening the paper she began to read, "4 men were incarcerated today after being brought up on the charges of poaching which have stretched over a span of 13 years." She paused foot tapping, "Hmm that's funny. Am I not 13 going on 14? But wait, let's continue. These men were sentenced to 60 years each and, oh wait, down here in the notes it's confirmed that they are the men who killed my mother!"

Eyes glowing gold she crumpled the paper and slammed it to the floor, crushing it into the tile with her foot.

"And you decided no further action needed to be taken against these murderers? Are you kidding me? What gives anyone the right to decide their fate but me? They ruined my life!" She was yelling forcefully at the founders.

"I think you can see why we didn't want to tell you. It's the same thing as with the gang." Noble Heart offered calmly.

"Oh right. The gang that beat me up for no reason except to get my money. yeah they too got off free because everyone can change. Right Noble? No one ever deserves to be truly punished. Especially not these men who over the coarse of my existence ruined 6 other lives with their greed!" She spun and faced everyone now, eyes still glowing.

"You all took me in and raised me. I thought we were a family so I stayed. I gave up living with my own kind and my real friends, who tried to protect me because of all I thought you did for me. But this, this has crossed a line. I can't over look this one and move on, not by a long shot. So Happy Valentines Day, I'm leaving." Shifting into her true Pegasis form she charged the doors and with one kick of her hooves knocked them off their hinges allowing her to escape.

In the stunned silence that followed, Harmony was the first one to bring herself back to her senses and decide that she had to do something, or the dance would disband and no one would remember any part of this day fondly, well almost no one. Harmony moved quickly over to where Guidance Heart was still standing.

"Now's your time, girl," she said, pulling the blue raccoon out, "if we don't do something now this is going to be remembered as the most horrible day in the Kingdom of Caring."

"Bu-but what can I do?" Guidance Heart asked, bewildered.

"What I wanted you to do all along, sing!" Harmony grabbed a CD she had set next to the player and swapped discs again, "this is the one we practiced, you should be able to do it, now go, your public awaits." Harmony pushed Guidance onto the performance area, she was dressed in an easy to move in light green dress. Gudiance gulped and took a deep breath, holding up the microphone she had with her to her mouth as the music started with a guitar solo

As Harmony was hitting the play button, Anger Heart managed to make his way over to her, not a tough challenge because everyone was still standing in stunned silence. He took one look at the nervous look on Guidance's face and said.

"She's not going to make it, not under this much pressure."

"I have faith in her," Harmony said, giving Anger Heart a sideway look.

"So do I, but she'll need, help, give me a microphone, I'll try to step in," he said, right as Guidance began to sing, catching everyone's attention.

"Guess this means you're sorry  
You're standing at my door  
Guess this means you take back  
All you said before  
Like how much you wanted  
Anyone but me  
Said you'd never come back  
But here you are again

'Cause we belong together now, yeah  
Forever united here somehow, yeah  
You got a piece of me  
And honestly,  
My life (my life) would suck (would suck) without you" 

Guidance Heart paused, her stage fight was taking hold and time was standing still for her. She couldn't handle everyone giving her their undivided attention, wanting her to save them from the disaster that had just happened, and she wanted to flee. But then, she was saved as a male voice started off the next verse.

"Baby I was stupid for telling you goodbye  
Maybe I was wrong for tryin' to pick a fight"

Guidance saw Anger Heart, walking over to her and singing along with her. Suddenly, she wasn't scared anymore and she sang her next part with great gusto.

"I know that I've got issues  
But you're pretty messed up too"

Then both the fox and the blue raccoon took hold of each other free hand with their free hands as they finished the rest of the song together.

"Either way, I found out I'm nothing without you!"

'Cause we belong together now, yeah  
Forever united here somehow, yeah  
You got a piece of me  
And honestly,  
My life (my life) would suck (would suck) without you

Being with you  
Is so dysfunctional  
I really shouldn't miss you  
But I can't let you go  
Oh yeah"

During the instrumental bit, Anger Heart couldn't help himself, he moved in and kissed Guidance Heart, actually electing a cheer from the previously shocked audience. Guidance Heart smiled, she knew how he felt now and this was the best way he could have done it. She'd tell him she forgave him and how she now felt after the dance, but for now, they had a song to finish.

"'Cause we belong together now, yeah  
Forever united here somehow, yeah  
You got a piece of me  
And honestly,  
My life (my life) would suck (would suck) without you

'Cause we belong together now, yeah  
Forever united here somehow, yeah  
You got a piece of me  
And honestly,  
My life (my life) would suck (would suck) without you"

There was applause for the two's performance that quickly faded. Guidance Heart and Anger Heart's performance may have softened the blow, but it hadn't changed the events that had transpired, Fauna was gone. The silence that followed the last song was still uncomfortable, but some of the family members were a bit more relaxed than they had been a few minutes ago.

It was Defiant Heart Badger who broke the silence, walking deliberately over to Noble Heart and True Heart before he started speaking; he didn't raise his voice, but no one missed what he said.

"Well now that my two old school pals are finished their rather good performance, let me ask something. I'm pretty new here so tell me, what the heck was that all about?" he held up his hand to forestall anyone interrupting him, "Never mind, I think I've figured it out. Noble Heart and True Heart adopted Fauna along with the rest of the original bears and cousins some 13 years ago after her mother was killed by poachers, but you couldn't go after them then because you had cubs to raise and some dude named 'Dark Heart' to deal with. Now you found out they've finally been apprehended and imprisoned for what is basically the rest of their lives and you decided not to tell her hmm, let me think on that for a moment," the badger made a mock thinking pose for a moment before continuing, "Well I can't see how that makes much sense to me, even if she would have reacted the same way I think she deserved to know. You two had to know she'd find out eventually one way or another and as it turns out she found in probably the most troubling way possible, now she feels hurt and betrayed by the people she probably trusted the most up until now and she's gone! I barely had a chance to know her but I liked Fauna and while I may not have been here long, I know there are at least two others in this room who will miss her a lot more than the rest of us, but now she's gone and judging by that exit she made I doubt any of us will ever see her again."

Tenderheart tried to step in, but surprisingly it was Brave Heart who held him back and shook his head. No matter how harsh the badger's words were, they were the truth and sadly they all needed to hear this.

"All of us, well," Defiant Heart glanced over at Illusion Heart Alligator then spread his arms as he continued, "Most of us are orphans and those of us who are don't know what happened to our parents, some probably just fell victim to nature, or predators, which is fine, but I'm sure more than a handful of us lost our parents to humans for one reason or another, and if we found out we'd probably react in the same way. Sure most of us wouldn't go out of the way for vengeance, but even I can't imagine how angry Fauna was right then, heck I bet Anger Heart over there doesn't even know how angry she is, and he understands anger better than any of us." Defiant Heart crossed his arms and stared at the founders, narrowing his eyes, "and you know what the cherry on top of this disaster pudding is? Your attempts to prevent her revenge will be rendered moot by the end of the week. I've been doing my best to follow recent events up here and I heard about the gang that assaulted Fauna for her money on Earth, and how swiftly the Pegasus from that place they live were to want to take violent action against them, so I can guarantee you that by the end of this week, whether by Fauna's hands or by the hands, hooves, or whatever of the other Pegasus will use, those poachers will be found dead in their cells and retribution will have been had. It doesn't matter if you think differently, I'm sure all of you know what I'm saying is true, Fauna's gone and I'm positive there's nothing that's going to stop her or the other Pegasus from exacting revenge for the murder of one of their kin. Noble Heart and True Heart, you two may be older and wiser than any of us, but even you aren't infallible and I think you made the wrong judgment call this time, now excuse me because I'm leaving, I need some sleep after all this excitement." Defiant Heart Badger turned and strode out, leaving a dumbstruck Care Bear Family behind him.

"He always did speak his mind without holding back," Guidance Heart whispered to Anger Heart, who nodded in reply. Noble Heart and True Heart quietly left after Defiant Heart, the two founders hadn't said anything, they weren't sure they agree with the badger's harsh accusations, but he was right about one thing, the Pegasus would have their revenge, and with Fauna gone, there was little to no chance of dissuading them.

In the heavy atmosphere following Defiant Heart's speech, other people from the dance began to disperse. Snowy Heart, Share, Funshine, and Playful Heart stayed behind to clean up, no one would feel like dealing with this mess in the morning. Loyal Heart offered to stay behind as well, Proud Heart wanted to go get some sleep and she said she'd like some time along to digest what had happened, and the large amount of food she had eaten.

She knew what they were expecting. She knew the others thought she was going to go storming after her "parents" and chew them out for what they had done. But the truth of the matter was, Defiant and Fauna had pretty much said it all. She couldn't even bring herself to look at the founders tonight.

Swift Heart stripped off her red boots and left the Hall of Hearts through the kitchen. She drove back to the Forest of Feelings and instead of rushing home, she took her time to walk through the trees. The evening was cool and her short red dress was little protection against the nip.

Getting to her rabbit hole she climbed down the ladder and let herself into the warm burrow. Turning on the light she saw her and Fauna's clothes scattered over the floor. She'd forgotten that they'd gotten ready there and Fauna had been asked to run Grumpy's errand before they'd had a chance to clean up. Going to the couch she picked up the blue shirt draped over the arm before collapsing on the couch.

Swift Heart's tough façade melted away to expose her vulnerable side, a side she never exposed around her family. Burying her face in the shirt she allowed herself to cry over the loss of the little sister. Knowing she wasn't going to see Fauna everyday crushed her. They had come to depend on each other so much; it felt as if her right arm had been snatched away.

Her phone ringing caused her to jump. Quickly drying her eyes and collecting herself she picked up. "Hello?"

"Are you going to be okay?" Hearing Grumpy on the other end almost brought the tears back. It was no mystery that the two who were going to miss Fauna the most were her and Grumpy; a fact that should have comforted her.

"I'm fine. I just need some space and time to cope."

She heard him sigh. "Don't shut me out Swift Heart. I'm going to miss her too."

A small sob escaped before she could catch herself, "Which is why I can't talk to you right now. It's too close, it makes me remember all the times the three of us had together and I can't think about them." She wiped her eyes.

Grumpy was silent on the other line as he waited for Swift Heart to calm down. "She loves us to much to completely abandon us. Sure she's going to be pissed for awhile but sooner or later we'll see her again. Think on that and I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Hanging up his phone, Grumpy got up and headed for his bedroom. Stopping to look at a picture on his wall, he saw the newly adopted 5 month old Fauna, curled up next to him as he sat on the floor. He couldn't have been more then 4 years old at the time.

"Stay safe baby sis." Running a paw down the picture he retreated to his bedroom, slamming the door a little harder then normal.

Brave Heart and Harmony lingered a bit, also lending a hand to clean up. Brave Heart looked up at the outfit Harmony was wearing and gave a quizzical look.

"Is it hard to walk in that?" he asked.

Harmony managed to smirk, "A bit, but once you get used to it it's not so bad."

"Ahh," Brave Heart was silent for a moment, "guess I owe you an apology, I should have read those signals you kept sending me better."

"It's all right, I guess I overreacted, most guys can't pick up on the subtle signals we gals send out," Harmony playfully hip-checked the lion.

"Well umm, would you like to go out some time?" Brave Heart asked.

"Maybe, we'll see," Harmony sighed, "once the dimness has died down from what happened tonight." Brave Heart nodded and continued to help clear the dishes.

Despite having enjoyed doing the "Bad Romance" song and dance alongside Harmony Bear, Playful Heart and Funshine could tell this was no time for jokes or pranks. At the moment that wouldn't be a good way to lighten people's moods, this was the kind of thing that could only be remedied by time.

"Where did you learn Gaga's dance moves?" Funshine asked Playful as they lifted a table that had been cleared off so they could fold the legs in.

"From watching you when you thought you were alone," Playful giggled.

Funshine smirked, "I knew you were there, Playful, I just wanted to see how long you could watch me dancing before you joined in."

"Well how was I?" he asked as they dragged the table off to the side.

"Not bad, a little off on the timing, but you have plenty of time to learn if you're interested now," Funshine said, grinning over at her boyfriend.

Anger Heart and Guidance Heart departed in a hurry, managing to catch up to Defiant Heart before he got too far away.

"Hey Defiant, wait up!" Anger Heart called. The badger turned and rolled his eyes as he saw his two old school mates rushing up to meet him.

"Where's the fire you two?" he asked.

"No fire, we just wanted to talk," Guidance said, "so how did you like our performance."

"Oh, that song, yeah it was good, I liked it so…" Defiant Heart grinned at them, "are you two a couple now."

"Well, I'm not really sure…" but Anger Heart's uncertainty was cut off by Guidance Heart.

"Yes, we are," she took Anger Heart's hand in her own, "what he did tonight too a lot of courage and I've forgiven him for his little incident with Bright Heart."

"Aww, thanks," Anger Heart said, blushing though it was hardly noticeable behind his red fur.

"Aww aren't you two sweet," Defiant Heart said, rolling his eyes and he continued home, with the new couple walking with him.

"Speaking of bravery," Anger Heart chipped in, "what you said to everyone back there took a lot of guts."

"Thanks," Defiant Heart nodded, "think I was too harsh."

"I really couldn't say," Guidance Heart said, "I never got to know Fauna all that well but at least what you said was honest and to the point."

"Do you really think Fauna's never coming back?" Anger Heart asked, concerned.

"I can't say, I'm just going off what little I know and was able to piece together. The way she was acting I honestly think there's a good chance she might not return here, at least not for the foreseeable future," Defiant Heart stopped and stared up at the sky through the canopy of trees of the Forest of Feelings, that they had entered a minute ago, "maybe she'll come back someday, when she and all of us are older and wiser and can forgive what happened today, but I know we'll never forget so it will take time, a lot of time," he looked back down and continued home. Anger Heart saw Guidance back to her house before heading back to his home. In almost any other circumstances he would be jumping for joy, he and Guidance Heart were together! But it came at such a sad time that he found himself unable to really celebrate the event, so he just sighed and went home.

As Loyal Heart was wiping some of the mess off the floor, he felt a slight ping in his head. He looked up, strange, he thought he felt something, but it was gone now so he shrugged it off. Snowy Heart, who was stacking chairs, stopped for a moment and held his head. He'd had a headache since the start of the dance but it hadn't been anything serious, now it was getting worse for some reason. Suddenly the arctic fox cousin felt very weak in the knees and he collapsed, his eyes clouding over.

"Snowy!" Share Bear was at his side in an instant and once again that night, everyone was stunned.

Snowy's eyes cleared up and he said, "I just had a vision."

"A vision, you mean like when you meditate?" Share asked.

"Yes, but," Snowy sat up, "it has never happened this way before. I suddenly felt a rush of images in my mind, nothing clear but it was strong."

"Well what did you see? Don't leave us hanging," Playful Heart insisted.

"I saw, a familiar face, yet once I cannot remember, strange monsters cold to the touch, a strange and mystical place with things I cannot even describe, two beings, at once familiar and alien, and then I saw, there were more of us, but not us," Snowy shook his head, "it's gone now and I don't know what to make of it."

"I think what went on tonight just has you rattled," Share said, helping the fox to stand up, "considering all that's happened I'm not surprised you collapsed, I'll help you home." Share proceeded to help the fox, supporting him as he walked home.

Fauna moved through the forest of Pegasus Falls making her way to the nest she had been born in. It was where she often stayed when she had her over night trips here, and now she was going to make it her permanent home. Plus she really needed the extra comfort of knowing this place held a special connection to her mother.

Lineing the side of the nest were a layer of her mother's molted feathers. Unlike with mortal birds, these feathers would never disintegrate or grow old because they had come form an immortal being. They had kept her warm for the first 5 months of her life, before her world had been turned upside down.

Laying in the nest she folded her legs underneath her and spread her wings over her back. Burying her nose in the rim she inhaled her mother's ever present scent. Silent tears continued to fall down her cheeks as she drifted off.

2 hours later Fauna felt someone lay next to her. They placed their neck over hers, pulling her against them. Fauna spoke sleepily, "How did you know I was here? And how did you get away?"

"Thunders mom saw you come through the portal and said you looked upset. And the guards don't know I can shift, Wind Rider said it would be a good secret to keep for my security." She snuggled deeper into Blue. "I'm really glad you're here."

She heard her other friends enter her nest. Frosty lay above her, allowing her to rest her head on his flank, Thunder curled up on her other side, and Red Snout lay on the other side of Blue.

"You wanna talk about what has you so upset? Normally True Heart and Noble Heart wouldn't let you leave this late."

"In the morning Blue. All you have to know is I don't live there anymore so I could care less what they think."

Frosty nudged her cheek. "We're really happy you're here. We've missed you."

Fauna felt a smile pull up her lips and a happy warmth fill her, burning away the feelings of betrayal. "I'm happy." And she was. For the first time in her life she felt one hundred percent herself, back among her friends for good. She knew what the morning would bring, but for now she wanted to enjoy her one bit of serenity.


	8. Revelations

[u]Revelations[/u]

The weather the morning after the Valentines Day seemed to reflect the mood over the Kingdom of Caring. The cloud both above and below were grey and the sun was barely visible. At the morning meeting, roughly half the members of the Family were absent, including Noble Heart and True Heart, and those who were there were all rather lethargic, Playful Heart and Funshine were absent so there wasn't even a bunch of jokes or pranks to lighten the mood.

"Figures Noble and True wouldn't show," Swift Heart said, leaning back and crossing her arms.

"Swift Heart!" Tenderheart said severely, "they did what they thought was best."

"Please," Harmony spoke up, "Let's not start a fight now, things are dismal enough already today."

Tenderheart sighed, tossing the agenda he had down to the table, "You know what, I don't think any of us are in the right mindset for any kind of work today, unless a major caring emergency crops up everyone has the day off to do whatever they feel like." Tenderheart got up and trudged out the door of the hall, most of the rest of the family followed him and they all just began to wander around, looking for things to do, or just to lie around. None of them felt like doing much of anything so for the most part, none of them did. None of them even noticed the little cloud with a camera lens as it was observing them from a safe distance

Far from the downtrodden Kingdom of Caring, someone was keeping an eye on the Care Bear Family. Professor Cold Heart, longtime enemy of the Care Bears had been watching all their actions for the past week using his hidden cloud camera.

"Those little fuzzy wuzzies are really starting to get irritating!" he shouted, startling his assistant, the bumbling Frostbite, who tumbled off his feet and back into a bucket of water he'd been mopping with. "Not only have they foiled my plans again and again, but now there are more of them than ever before," he began clicking through images, showing each of the new Care Bear Family members that had joined the family in less than a year, Snowy Heart, "More," Illusion Heart, "More!", Jolly Heart, "And MORE! then a picture of Guidance Heart, Anger Heart, and Defiant Heart, "AND MORE OF THEM! And look!" the picture then shifted to an image of Loyal Heart sitting with Proud Heart, both of them placing their hands over the pregnant swell of her tummy, "They're even having baby fuzzies up there! I must put a stop to this before they grow out of control! But how?" As the Professor got up and started pacing, Frostbite struggled to remove the bucket from his rear end.

"Duh, too bad they always melt the icy hearts of your creations," the short man said, before finally freeing himself form the bucket, sending the short little assistant rolling forwards into a pile of spare parts he then had to extricate himself from.

"Melt the hearts, hmm maybe," Professor Cold Heart thought for a moment, "I've got it! If they can melt all but the iciest of hearts, then I'll just create minion without hearts at all! Yes and I'll use the snow machine I invented that creates snow that never melts, brilliant!" He grabbed Frostbite's hand and dragged him off, "Come Frostbite, we have work to do!"

"Duh, OK boss."

Despite his strong speech the previous night, Defiant Heart Badger was one of the least affected by the heavy mood that hung over the Care Bear Family. Mainly it was because he had only known Fauna for a short time and hadn't grown as close to the shape-shifting Pegasus as the rest of the family, sure he missed her but he wasn't hit as hard as the others. That was also why he'd been able to give such a speech the previous night, he'd experienced less shock when Fauna had left and as such was able to collect his thoughts more quickly. He hadn't been at the meeting but he guessed that no one was going to be in a mood to do any sort of work today, so he just wandered aimlessly, looking for something to pass the time.

Swift Heart shoved her hands in the pocket of her grey hoody as she left the Hall of Hearts. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and watch movies. The drizzle tickled her ears, causing them to twitch. "This whole freakin day whomps!" out of the corner of her eye she saw Defiant Heart walking aimlessly around. He had been lucky enough to miss the pointless meeting.

Defiant Heart noticed the rabbit and waved to her, "Hey Swift Heart, was the meeting as dull as I thought it would be?"

She walked over to him, "Totally and completely pointless. Half of the others didn't even show up. Including True and Noble."

"I'm not surprised," Defiant said, "I'm not sure what I'm going to do today, I was going to hang out with Anger Heart and Guidance Heart, but those two took of a little while ago, guess they wanted some time alone. Can't blame 'em really, I was always wondering when those two would hook up ever since I met them."

She nodded. "I know what you mean. One of those couples everyone realizes should be together before they do. I don't really have any plans but I could definitely use a caffeine fix. Wanna join?" She popped the hood up on her hoody, letting her ears lay flat down the back of her head.

Defiant Heart shrugged, "Sure why not, up here on on Earth? I haven't drank much coffee since my last exams."

"Earth. The less time I spend up here the better." Staring a cloud mobile, she got into the driver seat and waited for Defiant to join her. Defiant Heat got in the passenger seat and sat back.

Swift Heart decided to try and get to know Defiant a little better on the drive down to Earth, hoping it would distract her. "So other then yesterday, how have you been enjoying your time up here?"

"It's alright," the badger said, glancing over at Swift Heart, "the rainbows, stars and hearts take a little getting used to but it's better than living with my last family."

She gave a short laugh, "Etienne said he felt like he had been dropped into a 8 year old girls birthday cake and all that was missing was the pretty pink ponies."

Defiant Heart chuckled at the thought, "Yeah well, it's better than high school, that's for sure. So what about you, I haven't really gotten to know many of you since I joined up, so what can you tell me about yourself, other than being the fastest member of the Care Bear Family."

"Oh well I'm also the coolest. A little fact the others hate to admit to." She smirked at him, "I'm pretty chill about alot of things and let the others do what they want as long as it doesn't affect me. And I very rarely keep my opinions to myself. Oh, and 90% of the time I'm sunbathing outside my house. And finally I hate going swimming more then anything else. That sufficient? Or do want the whole favorite color, favorite song, childhood dream rundown?"

"Nah, I think you pretty well covered everything I could have wanted to ask about," Defiant said. By this point they had made their way down to Earth.

Parking in the Starbucks lot Swift Heart slipped her sunglasses on, even though it was overcast, and headed for the door. "So what do you like to do Defiant?"

As they entered, Defiant thought about that, "Well other than watch TV and movies, I'm not sure. I've given video games a try and they're pretty good, but I spent most of my time doing schoolwork. The only time my adopted parents ever really noticed me was when I was doing poorly in school so I spent probably more time then I needed to studying."

"That sucks. I was never very good at schoolwork, didn't have the patience for sitting in a room all day long listening to endless lectures." Defiant nodded as he and Swift Heart got their coffee, Defiant took his with milk, mostly to cool it off so he wouldn't burn his tongue. They sat down at a table near the window and he took a drink, shivering as he swallowed.

"I forgot how this stuff tasted," he commented, "it's been a while," he took another drink from his cup.

Swift Heart took a swallow of her coffee, sighing as she felt it warm her. "Another little tidbit about me. If I don't get my coffee in the morning, I can be a total grouch."

"I'll keep that in mind," Defiant Heart stared out the window then asked, "So, are you seeing anyone?"

She choked briefly on her drink. Coughing to clear her lungs she grinned at him. "You just jump right to the point there huh? No I'm not seeing anyone."

Defiant Heart smirked and took another drink, "Yeah well, I thought that was plainly obvious after last night," he said. The badger looked down at his symbol, a gold shield with a heart on it, and asked, "Think I was too harsh last night?"

"Hardly. I think you hit the nail on the head. I can't believe how stupid they were," she fiddled with the sleeve around her coffee cup.

"OK, I just try to get a second opinion after I say things like that, especially since I'm fairly new here."

"Well it sounds like you are going to fit in great. Too many people keep quiet sometimes, we need more opinions. Now it's only fair I ask you this. Are you interested in anyone? I get your new and all but you never know."

"Naah," Defiant Heart said, "Every girl up there seems to have someone already or they aren't my type, no offence."

"Glad to hear that. Cause I was afraid I was going to have to shoot you down if your next question was 'Will you go out with me'. You're cool people Defiant, but not my type either." She tipped her coffee cup to him before taking a drink.

"Well don't worry about that, you're cool too, never really had an honest conversation with someone before, I usually ended up fighting with Anger Heart, Guidance Heart was shyer back on earth, and no one else took me seriously 'cause I looked like a stuffed animal," he shuddered, "ugg some of the girls there were unbearable."

"That whomps. And I totally get you on the whole looking like a stuffed animal thing. It makes it hard for a lot of people to take you seriously."

Defiant nodded as he finished his cup of coffee, "So what else did you have planned for the day?" he asked, "I got nothing after this."

"I was planning to spend the day not talking to a soul and eating my weight in chocolate until I felt better about my best friend being pushed to the brink of her sanity. Or you know something like that." Getting up she took Defiant's coffee sup to throw away along with her own.

"Ah," Defiant said, standing up and stretching, "sorry if I threw a wrench into your plans by talking to you," he said sarcastically.

"Oh Defiant Heart, you forget I hang out with Grumpy Bear, that bad attitude isn't going to work on me." Smirking she flicked him under the chin. "And I'm glad you got me out. It got my mind off things."

"Always happy to help," he said, "going back up to cloud land now?"

"Unless there is anywhere else down here you want to go."

"Nah, no good new movies out today so I thought I'd just watch TV or movies, or maybe use the money I saved up to by a video game console and give that a try," he said, shrugging.

"You can come back to my place and watch something. I just got a whole bunch of new DVD's."

"Cool, thanks," he said, "I'll join ya, it's always better to watch movies with a friend. You driving back up there or should I?"

She bowed at him, motioning to the cloudmobile, "Please be my guest." Getting into the passenger seat her feet instantly went to their normal position on the dashboard.

"All right," he said, starting the engine and driving back up to the Kingdom of Caring, "So what kinda movies you got?"

"Mostly everything except fighting movies, you know with the martial arts and such, cause those bore me to tears."

"Join the club."

_[i]"And now I'm going to hand things over to my colleague who has a horrific report about what happened early this morning at the state penitentiary. We advise minors do not view this broadcast. Shannon?"_

"_Thanks Arnold. Early this morning 4 inmates were brutally murdered at the local penitentiary. The men, who had only been admitted the day before were sentenced to 60 years each for counts of poaching. This morning at muster, the guards found a gruesome sight waiting for them in the men's cells. Here is a picture of the least mutilated body." _

_An image flashed on the screen of a man who had his throat slit and 4 long furrows stretching from his neck to his navel. His eyes were swollen shut and the lids black and there were numerous puncture wounds on his face._

"_The others had limbs torn from their bodies, one was decapitated completely, and another had every bone in his body broken leading to sever hemorrhaging. Leading experts believe that these were all cases of animal attacks, but it is unclear how such a variety of animals were snuck into the jail and then snuck out again with no one noticing. The guards also mentioned that no commotion was heard from any of the cells. We will be keeping close tabs on this story and will be providing you with updates as they come in. Back to you Arnold."[/i]_

True Heart shut off the television and sighed, "It was Fauna. No one else could have done that."

Noble Heart nodded, "I know, I know. What do we do now?"

"What can we do, she got her revenge and she's out of our hands now," True Heart wiped a tear from her eye, "Noble Heart, what did we do wrong?"

Noble Heart hugged True Heart, "There, there, we raised her as best we could. But maybe, Defiant Heart had a point, not telling her was a bad decision, but we did what we thought was right like we always do."

"Maybe," True Heart leaned back in Noble Heart's arms, "We raised our family to try and seek peaceful resolutions and now we've lost one of our adopted children and she's killed four people, I can't help feeling that we failed."

"I don't think we failed," Noble Heart kissed True Heart, "I won't say what Fauna did was right, but I can't say that they deserved any less either, whether she took her revenge or not they would not have troubled any other animals for the rest of their lives. For now let's hope that at least Fauna will have cooled off, and everyone else as well when and if they hear the news."

"I hope so," True Heart said, "and I hope, that we'll see Fauna again and that she can forgive us."

Down in Swift Heart's Rabbit Hole, Swift Heart and Defiant Heart had jsut finished watching the same news report. Defiant Heart sighed and stated plainly.

"I was right. Fauna sure didn't waste any time."

Swift Heart didn't say anything for a moment. She merely stared at the TV. "That wasn't all revenge. She was making a point."

"Trying to send a message to poachers the world over?" Defiant guessed.

Shaking her head she changed the channel, not wanting to see those images again. "To True Heart and Noble Heart. She wants them and us to see that she is done doing things our way."

"Oh," Defiant was silent for a moment then spoke up again, "does this mean we should be afraid for the people under our care?"

"No no no nothing like that, she's not going to go all serial killer on us. It's more along the lines of people who have crossed her. Fauna never had a beef with anyone unless they gave her a reason too. She's just using this as an excuse to show us how far she will go in retaliation."

"That's a relief," Defiant said, "cause honestly at the moment if she did do that, I don't think anyone here would have the ability to stop her, or the heart to do it for that matter," Defiant thought for a moment then asked, "since you seem to have been the closest to her, anything else you think I should know, or is it too late for that to matter?"

Swift Heart gave him a smile, "I'm just sorry you didn't get to know her better. She really is a great person."

"Yeah, I wish I'd had more time. So," Defiant stood up, "any movie preferences, I was kinda interested in watching that new 'Alice in Wonderland' movie that came out a while ago, you have it?"

Zipping over to her movies she quickly retrieved the box and held it up for his approval. "This the one you mean?"

"Yeah, I recognize Johnny Depp's mad hatter anywhere, load it up please," he said, "want me to make some popcorn or something?"

"Nope I got it, you'd take to long." Laughing she zipped into the kitchen after pressing play.

"Guess when you're that fast, everyone seems too slow," he said, sitting back down as teh movie began.

Grumpy had lingered in the Hall of Hearts after the meeting had ended and seeing this, Gentle Heart pulled Bright Heart aside, suggesting that they stay and talk with him. Once they were sure everyone was gone, the purple raccoon and green lamb went to sit next to Grumpy.

"Hi, Grumpy, how are you doing?" Gentle Heart asked.

"How do you think I'm doing?" He snapped, the weather not improving his oh so charming mood.

Gentle Heart shrank back and Bright Heart spoke up, "Hey, no need to snap at her! What happened last night wasn't her fault."

"I know. I didn't mean for it to sound so mean. I'm just so sick of everyone acting like Fauna died." he gave a weak smile to Gentle Heart in apology.

"That's all right," Gentle Heart said, sitting down on the opposite side of Grumpy from Bright Heart.

"So what are you planning on doing today?" Bright Heart asked.

"I was going to go home and do some more work on my car since I won't be going on caring missions today. Why? Did you have plans to blackmail me into helping you with something again?"

Bright Heart shook his head, "Don't worry about that, even if I did feel like working on something today I wouldn't force you to join in. Of all the people here you and Swift Heart should be allowed to do what you want today."

"Because out of everyone, you and Swift Heart were the closest to Fauna," Gentle Heart said.

"We'll leave you to your car if you want, Gentle Heart and I are going down to Earth to try and find something to get our minds off of things," Bright Heart added.

"Yeah I'm going to stay up here." He pushed away from the table. "Thanks for checking up on me." He said it quickly before walking out, not used to acknowledging when he appreciated something.

"He'll be fine," Bright Heart said, standing up and helping Gentle Heart up as well, "Now let's go, 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World' is playing and I think you'll like it."

"Isn't that that movie that runs like a video game?" Gentle Heart asked.

"It's a romance movie," Bright Heart reassured her as they left the Hall of Hearts and conjured a cloud car for the ride, "the video game stuff is just a contextual thing."

"Oh all right," Gentle Heart said, smiling.

Good Luck saw Bedtime heading off to bed after the short meeting. He hadn't talked with him in forever and figured no was as good as time as any. "Hey Bedtime, hold up a second."

Bedtime sleepily turned to see the green bear heading towards him, "Oh, hi Good Luck, want to talk about something?"

"Just wanted to see what you thought about all the excitement last night."

"Oh, well," Bedtime sighed, "I don't know, Fauna never really spoke with me but even so, things were shaken up, I couldn't really patrol last night. I actually slept a bit before the meeting was called," he smirked, "I guess all of us are pretty rattled."

He nodded. "I couldn't believe how angry she was. I mean we'd seen her little tantrums before but nothing like that."

"Yeah I know," Bedtime chuckled, "one of those tantrums woke me up around noon once."

Good Luck laughed with him. "She did have a flair for the dramatic, and she never did keep it under wraps if she was upset. Remember the time she was grounded for ruining the kitchen in the Hall of Hearts?"

"How could I," Bedtime smiled, "I got up for some food before my rounds and I stepped in a pot, and slid across the room on a trail of some thing that used to be food into the stove. Good thing it was broken so I didn't get burned."

Getting his laughter under control he sighed. "I think things are going to be a little less lively around here. And definitely quieter, at least till Proud Heart's baby arrives."

"Yeah," Bedtime said, "wonder how the kid will be, I'm sure almost everyone is going to want to help them in some way, you the old saying, 'it takes a village to raise a child' and I think this 'village' will do just fine."

"I'm going to see to it that it gets a lucky start to life." He popped the collar on his dark green polo.

"And I'll make sure it gets a good night's sleep, when it wants to of course," Bedtime said, adjusting the nightcap he always wore.

"Well I guess I should let you go to sleep. It's been a long day er... night for you. I'll keep you posted and let you know if I hear anymore developments in the Fauna thing."

"OK, thanks Good Luck, hope you can find something else to do today," Bedtime said, yawning as he headed for home.

Later that day, everyone was back in the Kingdom of Caring, the drizzle had ceased and the sun was now shining down on the Care Bear Family. The family themselves were not in a much better moods but some of them were feeling a bit better. Snowy Heart was target shooting, part of him felt he should practice now more than ever and there wasn't much else to do that day. Share Bear had wandered over to his shooting range, wanting to see him, she noticed him shooting and walked over to him.

"Hitting all your targets?" she asked, smiling for the first time that day.

Snowy lowered his bow and smiled back, "Yeah, I needed to unwind a bit, and there wasn't much else to do today."

"Is this all you've been doing today?" Share asked, "why didn't you come and see me."

"Sorry," Snowy looked rueful, "but I'm still trying to figure out what my vision last night meant and I needed to concentrate," he grinned, "when I'm with you I'm always thinking of other things."

"Aww," Share hugged Snowy and kissed him, "you're sweet."

At their now shared house, which had originally been hers alone, Proud Heart sat on the deck in her maternity clothing, he hands on the swell of her tummy. In just a couple short months she'd be a mother. The thought terrified her and at the same time it excited her, and with Loyal Heart by her side and the rest of the family behind them, she would pull through. Loyal Heart emerged with two cups of coffee, they'd stayed home all day not really having any reason to leave as neither of them had felt like going on a caring mission that day. But they did feel much better now that they had gotten dressed and were outdoors.

"Here you are dearest," Loyal Heart handed Proud Heart one cup of coffee, she smiled at him.

"Thank you, my love, but please call me 'milady' like you did before we were married, I like the sound of it better," the cat said.

"Of course milady Proud Heart," the dog said, sitting down and sipping his coffee. He smiled and lay a hand on his wife's pregnant tummy, "How are you feeling?"

"Quite well all things considered," Proud Heat said, then sighed, "I will miss Fauna though, a bit, she hasn't spoken to me at all since she found out I was pregnant."

"I asked her about that and she just said she felt 'weirded out' around you," Loyal Heart said, "I will miss her as well but time will pass and we'll be able to move on, perhaps she'll return and she'll see our child. Have you thought of any possible names for our child?" he asked.

"Well, now that you mention it, I was thinking of either Trust Heart or maybe Uncertain Heart," Proud Heart said, looking down at her tummy.

"I like Trust Heart," Loyal Heart said, "maybe we should go and see Take Care for an update exam."

"All right," Proud Heart said. They finished their coffee and Loyal Heart helped his wife to her feet and they set out, moving at Proud Heart's slow pace.

While the rest of the family was going around and about their business, Cold Heart was approaching. He had finished modifying his device that made snow that wouldn't melt in normal weather and he watched as the Kingdom of Caring loomed closer over the side of the flying machine he was using to transport.

"This is it, Frostbite, start the snowman making machine!" he commanded.

"OK boss," Frostbite reached over and pulled the lever that started the machine whirring.

"All right you fuzzy wuzzies, let's see how you handle my snowman army!" Cold Heart declared as the first snowman, seven feet tall, bulky, and with a head fused with its torso, and its hand raised threateningly, it stomped off to look for Care Bears as the machine began to create another snowman.

Three movies later, Defiant Heart was relaxed, not that he wasn't relaxed before but for now things were calmer. "So," he asked, "want to watch another one or do you think we've seen enough for the day?"

Stretching her arms over her head she twisted her back from side to side to crack her spine. "I think I'm good. If I spend anymore time on this couch I think I'm going to weld to it." She smiled over at him, "Thanks for spending the day with me."

"Hey it's no problem," Defiant smiled at her, "you're the first person I've met who I can really talk with about stuff that I actually care about, instead of trying to follow what someone else is sooo interested in but I don't care about at all."

"I hate that. They drone on and on and on and all you can do is nod with a fake smile on your face." Getting to her feet she took the popcorn bowl and their soda cans into the kitchen.

Defiant followed her, "Yeah, I know, especially when I end up sitting next to Bright Heart and he jsut has too-" Defiant was cut off by a loud rumbling that came from above.

"What in the heck was that!" he asked, suddenly alert.

Swift Heart whirled around ears swiveling to point at the entrance to her burrow. "Something's happening above. Let's check it out." She sped past him and up her ladder. Before he even had a chance to move she was yelling for him, "Defiant!"

Defiant Heart moved as fast as he could and climbing up after her, "What, what's going on!"

She pointed at the seven foot tall snowman walking through the trees. "That!"

"Oh," Defiant Heart stared, "I'm guessing this is from that Cold Heart character." He shook his head, "fight or run?" he asked.

The beast had fixed it's eyes on them, "Run! Definitley run!" she was off in a flash circling the things feet, trying to draw it's attention away from Defiant. "Hey snow butt, see if you can keep up." Laughing she took off in the opposite direction, the beast following her as best it could. Defiant considered going after her, but thr turned and ran for Care-a-Lot, the big thing wouldn't be able to catch her and he had to warn the others, before it was too late.

Bright Heart and Gentle Heart returned from Gentle Heart's house, where they had gone after the movie they'd seen on Earth, and both were smiling, feeling much better than they had earlier in the day. As they were walking, Bright Heart looked around and noticed some large white thing moving towards them.

The raccoon blinked, rubbed his eyes then asked Gentle Heart, "Do you see that over there?" pointing towards whatever it was.

Gentle Heart looked over as the thing loomed closer, and she saw it's eyes, just two shaded slits in the top of it's body, and started shaking, "I-I think it's going to attack us!" At that moment it was close enough and it reached up and tried to squish them with its arm, but fortunately they were able to dodge out of the way and start running.

"Look out!" Bright Heart called out and thankfully, everyone took notice and they could see the monster bearing down on the raccoon and the lamb.

Tenderheart heard the call and immediately sent out an alert signal with his tummy symbol, then called out, "Care Bears, Stare!" firing off his stare at the monster. The monster staggered but then began to advance as the substance that made up its body began to soften. Bright Heart, Gentle Heart, as well as Noble Heart and True Heart who were nearby also caught wind and began to stare and call at the thing with their symbols too. The monster began to slow down as its body began to melt slowly until eventually it turned into a giant puddle, which the clouds easily absorbed.

"Looks like it was made of snow," Bright Heart said.

"It had to have been Professor Cold Heart," Noble Heart said, "we have to warn the others." Before they could voice their agreement, the five of them heard a cry from near the Hall of Hearts and dashed off to find out what was going on.

The snow monsters weren't only in Care-a-Lot, two had made their way to the Forest of Feelings, one of which had ambushed Loyal Heart and Proud Heart. The married couple had tried using their calls on it, but it was too close for them to get enough distance between them and it for them to melt it down. Seeing that Proud Heart was tired, Loyal Heart stood his ground.

"Proud Heart run! I don't want to risk your health or our child's."

"But Loyal Heart!" Proud Heart tried to protest.

"Please, just run, I will hold it here while you go and get help," Loyal Heart conjured a plastic sword with his tummy symbol and tried to strike out at the monster's hand as it struck and he dodged aside, only managing to get a small amount of snow stuck to the plastic blade of the sword. Loyal Heart did his best to parry the things arms as Proud Heart did her best to run without seriously exerting herself, only to have the monster backhand him into a tree, snapping the blade of the sword off at the same time. Loyal Heart slid to the ground and collapsed in a heap.

"Loyal Heart!" Proud Heart cried out, seeing her husband badly injured. The monster turned its attention on the cat, who was too torn between wanting to protect her unborn child and not wanting to leave her husband to run. Loyal Heart struggled to stand, he had to save her, not just her, but their child who had yet to see the world around it. He held the broken plastic sword in his hands, as though it still had a blade attached, and spoke with conviction despite the pain.

"You will not harm Proud Heart," suddenly a blade formed on the broken hilt of the sword he had conjured, a transparent blue made seemingly made of energy. Not knowing where it had come from or caring that it had happened, Loyal Heart charged and cut into the monster's side, and surprising, a sizeable portion of the monster melted away, as if the blade were on fire. The monster turned on Loyal Heart, who was shocked by the strange efficiency of this mysterious new blade. He struck out again managing to melt the leg of the monster, which fell over. Seeing his chance, Loyal Heart plunged the sword into the rough "head" of the monster, causing its body to completely melt down.

Panting, Loyal Heart dropped the sword, the blade of which promptly vanished, and he ran over to an awestruck Proud Heart saying, "Milady are you all right?"

Proud Heart kissed him on the lips and hugged him close, "Oh Loyal Heart, thank you, I was so scared. How did you do that?"

Loyal Heart glanced over at the fallen sword then walked over and picked it up, "I do not know, milady, but it felt like, that time I was forced to help Valiant Heart just before he left, when he had that strange eruption of energy." He looked over at Proud Heart, then looked at the sword, "We should find a safe place, I do not know if I will be able to call up that power again." Proud Heart nodded and let Loyal Heart guide her away in to the Hall of Hearts, as they both knew there was safety in numbers.

At that moment, Snowy Heart was also running from one of the snow monsters. He had managed to distract the thing by shooting some of his target arrows at the monster, doing no damage, but getting it to chase in while Share ran for help. He had no time to stop and call it so he just kept running periodically stopping to shoot at it to keep it from going in the direction Share had gone.

Eventually, Snowy Heart ran out of his target arrows, but he was too tired and too focused on running to notice. He tried to draw an arrow for his quiver and then drew back his bowstring, not realizing he had no arrow, at least not a solid one, for as he drew the bow an arrow seemingly made of light formed on the bow. He was shocked for a moment, but did not question it at he let the arrow fly. The arrow hit the monster in the head, and melted it. Snowy stopped as the rest of the body collapsed and sprayed everything with water as it melted on impact.

"What was that," he reached into his shirt and pulled out the strange talisman he had received when he had first left Earth to live up here, the pentacle was glowing a soft white, "this talisman is responsible for this," he drew back his bowstring again and another arrow formed, he let it fly straight up where it flew a short distance before dissipating, "Whatever power this is, I need to tell the others what is going on, they could all be in great danger," he said, trying to run back to Care-a-Lot, but stopping after a short distance. He was tired form having needed to outrun the monster earlier so he instead did his best to speed-walk, hoping he could get there in time.

In Care-a-Lot, there were now almost a dozen of the monsters and they had herded most of the Care Bear Family to the Hall of Hearts, only those who had been slippery enough, like Playful Heart and Funshine, or quick enough, like Swift Heart, had managed to evade being penned in near the front door. Cold Heart floated over watching the Care Bears Family trying to defend themselves with their tummy symbols, but they had only managed to melt five of the snow monsters before they ran out of energy and most of them were either sitting, crouched, or leaning against the wall from exhaustion. Cold Heart floated over, gloating at his impending victory.

"Well well, fuzzy wuzzies, looks like your trapped! You'll never get out of here, never! I've finally won and soon you'll be nothing but fuzzy wuzzy slushies!"

"Come on, Care Bears, we have to keep trying," Tenderheart tried to muster a stare, but fell backwards after only a moment of trying, even he couldn't manage to stare.

"You may defeat us but others will resist you!" Noble Heart declared.

"I look forwards to it, after this victory I feel like I'll be able to defeat anyone!" Cold Heart shouted, cackling at the thought.

Suddenly, there was a noise like the crack of lightning and a voice called out.

"RENSEI TOKKAN!" A spiral shaped blast of lightning flew down from the roof of the Hall of Hearts, melting three of the monsters instantly. Everyone's attention was drawn to the figure, which was about the size of a Care Bear cousin, was carrying a large broadsword propped over its shoulder, and had a face that was completely hidden by a light brown cloak it was wearing.

"Guess I got here just in time," the shrouded figure, now clearly male, said, he pulled the hood of his cloak back revealing his face, which was covered in mixed blue and silver fur, and smiled triumphantly, "Anyone miss me?"

Love-a-Lot was the first to react, crying out and smiling, "VALIANT HEART!"

"Who's Valiant Heart?" Anger Heart asked Champ, who was closest.

"Valiant Heart Wolverine, a member of our family, he left shortly before you joined but now he's back," Champ's voice carried a mixture of relief and excitement.

Valiant jumped down and landed softly in front of the assembled Care Bear Family, lowering he sword he looked at Cold Heart.

"Professor Cold Heart, if you want to get to my family, you have to go through me first!" he declared, throwing off his cloak, revealing the black robe he was wearing underneath and gripping his sword in both hand, raising it into a battle ready position.

"You little Fuzzy Wuzzy, you'll pay for that, get him get him GET HIM!"

"Yeah get him!" Frostbite tried to shake his fist, but instead lost his balance and fell on his back. The monsters obeyed Cold Heart's command, and immediately turned their attention on the newly returned Valiant Heart who just smiled and shook his head, raising his sword which began to crackle with electricity.

"Fine, we'll do this your way. Rensei tokkan!" with the same cry as before he swung his sword down, creating the same blast of lightning, shaped like a spiral shaped drill, that flew at and melted three more of the monsters. One of the snow men tried to squish Valiant Heart and seemed to succeed, but the wolverine suddenly appeared behind it, and he sliced the monster in half from the top down, melting it.

"These things have no hearts, no minds, no spirits, so my spiritual energy is more than enough to melt them," Valiant said, jumping with surprising height up to the next monster and destroying it. Snowy Heart, Share, Loyal Heart, and Proud Heart came into view just in time to see Valiant melt the last two monsters.

"Is that, Valiant Heart?" Share asked, trying to see make out the figure dressed in black.

"I think, yes it is!" Loyal Heart declared.

"What is he doing?" Proud Heart asked.

"He's showing Cold Heart who's boss that's what!" Swift Heart said, having just rushed over to the four of them.

Cold Heart was in a fit of rage, "You little fuzzy wuzzy, I'll make you pay for that. Frostbite! Restart the machine!"

"Sorry, I won't let you do that!" Valiant Heart vanished again, appearing in front of the machine hanging below the professor's flying machine and stabbed the lightning covered blade into it. The machine crackled, overloaded with electricity as Valiant Heart landed on the ground in front of his family as the machine broke down and exploded, propelling Cold Heart, Frostbite, and their airship quite a distance away. Cold Heart stood up from where he had fallen and shouted in rage at the Care Bears as he was forced to retreat.

"I'll get you next time you little fuzzy wuzzies, I'll get you all and freeze the hearts of everyone in the world!"

"And we'll be here to stop you, every single time," Noble Heart called back before turning to Valiant Heart, who had stuck his sword point down in the clouds, "I must say, your arrival couldn't have been better timed, Valiant Heart. Welcome h-" but Noble Heart was cut off when Love-a-Lot tackled Valiant Heart and kissed him. The large sword fell the ground and briefly glowed white before shrinking into a shorter curved sword in a scabbard.

"I take it that you missed me," Valiant Heart said, smiling from underneath Love-a-Lot.

"I was always waiting for you to return," she said, "I love you."

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't make it home for Valentines Day, but I was tired and slept in," Valiant Heart stood up looking over the crowd, picking out the unfamiliar faces of Illusion Heart Alligator, Anger Heart Fox, Guidance Heart Raccoon, and Defiant Heart Badger. "Looks like the family's grown since I left. For those who don't know me, my name is Valiant Heart Wolverine, I was an original member of the Care Bear Cousins, but I was forced to leave a several weeks ago because of a strange power I had that nearly tore a hole in the Forest of Feelings," he walked over to the smaller sword and picked it up, "I have a lot to explain but I guess I should meet all of you first." Valiant was introduced to the four newest family members and reacquainted himself with the others he had known before. Valiant looked around and noticed a few members of the family standing closer than they used to be, particularly, Playful and Funshine, Brave Heart and Harmony, and especially Loyal Heart and Proud Heart; he instantly noticed the fact that Proud Heart's tummy was noticeably swollen.

"Looks like I've missed a lot of important stuff," he added, "Loyal Heart, Proud Heart, how are you two doing?"

"Well, we were married earlier this week," Proud Heart said, smiling.

"Ah, so you two tied the knot pretty quickly huh, and it looks like you've already got a kid on the way," rolled his eyes, "so where's Fauna, I thought for sure she'd have said something by now." As soon as the Pegasus' name was mentioned Valiant noticed an instant dulling of the mood in the Care Bear Family, "What, what happened?"

The events of the previous night unfolded for Valiant Heart and he sighed and shook his head, "I don't know what to say, I've been gone for so long I guess I'm in no position to judge what happened," he looked over at Defiant Heart, "wish I could have heard your speech but regardless of the unfortunate events, it's good to be home."

Illusion Heart noticed the crowd around Valiant and Love-a-Lot thinning so he figured he'd go and formally meet the wolverine. Walking up to him he extended his scaly hand, "Bonjour Misure Valiant Heart. De name is Illusion Heart."

Valiant took the gator's hand and shook it, giving Illusion Heart a wierd look, "Uh, hi, umm what's with the way your talking, I don't recognize that accent."

He grinned exposing his teeth, "My apologies frer. I was raised in de bayous of Louisiana so mah drawl is of de Cajun variety."

"Oh, I see. So, Illusion Heart, how do you like living up here compared to down there?" Valiant asked.

"It different den back hom fo' sho'. But dis place ain't too bad. Gonna take meh awhile to get used to de clouds and rainbows howevah. An unfortunatley it takes meh a lil' while longah to get goin in de mornins cause it's coolah up here."

"Huh, oh right, you're a reptile, you're cold blooded," Valiant said, "well I hope you learn to adjust."

"Merci homme. I appreciate de sentiment. Now if you'll excuse me, I will take mah leave an allow you an yo cher to get...re-acquainted." Winking at Love-a-Lot he moved away to speak with someone else.

Love-a-Lot took that chance to grab and drag Valiant Heart away, "He's right you know, we should get 'reacquainted'," she said, grinning at him.

"OK, what did you have in mind?" he asked.

"What do you think," Love-a-Lot asked, a playful glint in her eye as she dragged him back to her house.


End file.
